Finally, the sunshine came out, so I had to get out. However, I badly twisted my ankle a few days ago so walking was out of the question, therefore I decided to go back to Flamborough Head to just sit and watch the seabirds.

On arrival a stiff northerly breeze was creating quite a swell on the sea and blowing large numbers of seabirds close to shore – the prospects of seeing something interesting were better than I had thought. I sat in a sheltered spot  on the cliff top and watched the birds from 11.30 am to 2.15 pm. Very large numbers of Kittiwakes, both adult and juvenile, were feeding and heading north along with good numbers of Gannets. Herring Gulls, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Greater Black-backed Gulls were also numerous, with a few immature Common Gulls. Manx Shearwaters were also heading north in small groups, with a total of 14 birds seen throughout the period. I also saw about 40 Flumars cruising around and about 20 Sandwich Terns.

Although there were large numbers of these species present, there was  little else, with only about 10 Guillemots, 8 Puffins and 30 Razorbills seen, and constantly staring across the sea began to make me dizzy, particularly when the sun went in and the colour of the sea became dark – as you can imagine, if just looking at the sea makes me dizzy then going on a pelagic trip is out of the question. I have been known to suffer seasickness even before the boat had left port!. I did see a  single Oystercatcher flying south and also a Whimbrel going in the same direction. As I was getting ready to leave I decided to have a last look and very quickly found an adult Great Skua coming quite close to the shore. Quite exciting as this was a new species for me. I’m not really sure how I’ve failed to see this species in the past as it isn’t especially uncommon – more to do with my lack of interest in standing on windy cliffs in autumn than its scarcity.

One more interesting species also turned up a few minutes afterwards – a dark morph Arctic Skua, which was attacking Kittiwakes and a Fulmar, but it didn’t seem to get a meal from them. Also worth a mention are 3 Harbour Porpoises that were hunting in the area; they are actually pretty common here and anyone spending an hour or so watching the sea here is likely to spot some.

After a successful time watching the seabirds just 2 Linnets and 4 Jackdaws flew past on my way back to the car.

birding, birds, nature