STEVE ASHTON'S WILDLIFE GALLERY

July 2008

A weekend at Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire.

I was picked up at 7 o clock on Saturday morning, and along with Mike Gould, Gadget and Allan Ashdown, We travelled to Bempton, in East Yorkshire, to visit the sea bird colony that is run by the RSPB. This was my first visit to a sea bird colony, and it was nice to get close up views of birds normally seen at a distance from the Kent coast line. The weather was fairly kind to us, with a few spots of rain, which was clearing up as we arrived at our guest house. We decided to pay the reserve a visit on the afternoon that we arrived, and was rewarded with good views of the resident nesting TREE SPARROWS, as we drank our umpteenth cup of tea, something that Mike insists on, when participating in such trips. Arriving at the cliff top, Gannets seemed to be every where, with GUILLIMOTS, RAZORBILLS and KITTIWAKES nesting on the ledges along the cliff face. A few photo’s were taken, but it was decided that the weather forecast for the Sunday morning would be more favourable for photography, so we walked the cliff face, deciding on a good vantage point to help us in the morning. (One of the advantages of inviting an ex pro photographer on our trip).
A pleasant evening was spent over a meal and a few drinks, and it was just after 9 o clock on Sunday morning, when we were back on the cliff top, where the GANNETS were first on the agenda, trying to photograph them as they flew along the cliff top. RAZORBILLS and GUILLIMOTS were easily photographed, and Mike pointed out a BRIDLED GUILIMOT, a Northern variety, and its white eye ring and stripe was easy to see. The latter part of the morning, was spent trying to get pictures of flying PUFFINS, which proved difficult, as they were flying low over the water, which was approximately 300 foot below us. With the distance and the contrasting sea, results were not great, but some pictures were obtained. There were PUFFINS holed up on some of the ledges, allowing some photo’s, and on more than one occasion, a bird would stray too close, resulting in PUFFINS squabbling with each other. Other photographs obtained, were of a Jackdaw, which landed on the cliff top, a young TREE SPARROW and also of a Linnet, which was perched on top of a bush in the RSPB car park. We left the cliffs at 1.15 pm, and arrived home just before 8 o clock Sunday evening, probably an hour late, due to too many tea stops on the way. Many thanks to Mike Allan and Gadget, whom contributed to the making of an excellent weekend, and I found them all to be very helpful and quick answering any questions I had to ask, but all very slow in getting to the bar on the Saturday night.