With Great Shearwaters having been seen in the preceeding days at Flamborough, I made the trip there hoping for a view of this species. On arrival, however, it was clear that the wind had changed and was coming from completely the wrong direction for good seawatching, making for a flat sea.

Still, the sunshine was welcome and there were plenty of the more common species to be seen. Large rafts of Razorbill were floating around in the water and Shags were busy flying back and forwards too. The numbers of Gannets had greatly decreased from a month ago although there were still quite a few to be seen. Through two hours on the cliffs I only saw 3 Fulmars and 4 Kittiwakes, including one juvenile but Sandwhich Terns and Common Terns were passing north and south in groups of 10 – 20.

A bit of luck struck me only about 20 minutes after I arrived with 2 Sooty Shearwaters passing very close to the cliffs giving me a great view in the sunshine. However, that was to be the end of the excitement for the next hour apart from a kestrel flying between the cliffs. After getting a bit bored I moved to another spot out of the wind and enjoyed the sun. This gave me the chance to watch some birds on the rocks below the cliffs: 1 Oystercatcher, 6 Turnstones and a number of Herring Gulls and Great Black-backed Gulls.

Then came a period of some activity with a Peregrine Falcon coming in off the sea only to be attacked and chased away by another already in residence on the cliffs. Two Red-throated Divers flew south within about 5 minutes of each other and a dark morph Arctic Skua flew north in pursuit of Herring Gulls. Also flying around the cliffs were a number of House Martins and Goldfinches and the last species to add to the day list was a group of around 30 Common Scoters flying north quite far out to sea.

Unfortunately no Great Shearwater but quite a nice collection of birds nevertheless.

birding, birds, nature