What to do when the sea is calm and seawatching from Flamborough Head is pretty much a waste of time? Head to the beach at Bridlington, that’s what!

Unfortunately, the northerly winds that made seawatching at Flamborough on monday so good were not repeated today making it a pretty unrewarding past-time. In a couple of hours I saw much lower numbers of Kittiwakes and Gannets than on monday and just 5 Fulmars, although I did get lucky with 1 Arctic Skua coming quite close to shore. The only auks I saw were 6 very distant Razorbills, although plenty of Shags were busy flying back and forwards. The only other birds of interest were a group of 12 Common Scoters flying north.

I guess I will have to pay more attention to the weather report before heading back to Flamborough; any easterly or northerly winds over the next few months should turn up some good birds.

Heading to Bridlington’s north beach, I walked to the most northerly end to have a look at the gulls that hang out where some freshwater springs feed into the sea. A couple of hundred Kittiwakes were bathing, about 50-60 Herring Gulls, 13 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 9 Great Black-backed Gulls and 7 Black-headed Gulls were all loafing around as well as around 20 Sandwich Terns, with a number of adults feeding juveniles. Also present on the rocks were a few waders: 2 Sanderling (actually they were on the beach), 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 9 Turnstones, 23 Oystercatchers, 8 Ringed Plovers and 3 Knot. Far out to sea a couple of Gannets could also be seen fishing.

The sunshine lent itself more to eating ice cream than to birdwatching so I headed into town to get one.