Original PaulE
Well-known member
Yorkshire 2015
So just returned from a short break in East Yorkshire I think the accent I picked up is staring to fade!!
So the plan was hit the East Coast of Yorkshire, Spurn ,Flamborough etc wallow in the rares dripping off every bush, find a couple of firsts for Britain eat lots cake and return a hero!
Unfortunately it was pretty obvious the birding Gods were against us the weather forecast was poor with the wind all wrong! Undaunted we arrived at Spurn on the approach road a group of 20 birders had there scopes trained on a hedge, what had they found ?? Brown Shrike? Red-flanked, Bluetail?, Flamingo??? Leaping out of the car my “what are we on??” was greeted with the comment “think it’s a Spot Fly!” made it back to the car without hitting anybody and proceeded with the plan.
My first mistake was thinking Spurn Point was only a mile from the visitor centre, my second was in my hurry to get to grips with all the awesome birds I forgot to take any water, a hat and worse of all no cake!!! Four hours and six miles later we staggered back to the car ,it had been a nice walk but it’s a long way for 10 Wheatears, 5 Whinchats a few Mippits , a Yellow Willow Warbler that I couldn’t string into anything else and a Seal! Spurn redeemed itself on the way out when a group of birders were this time watching a Red-backed Shrike!!!
Knackered we booked in to our B&B in Skipsea and then had dinner at the Lobster Pot in Bridlington where the Highlight for me was the Gingerbread Cheesecake, Cake and Cheesecake in the same bowl whats not to like!!!
Day 2
We didn’t get out of the B&B till 9, blooming awesome fry up holding us back, Flamborough Head today. Stunning scenery unfortunately much the same story as Spurn no wind and few birds although the sea held some interest, a couple of Shags are always pleasant, a few Red-throated Divers, Fulmars and Gannets all over. On the way out I bumped into a local birder who put me on to a Yellow-legged Gull in the large flock on a ploughed field.
Next we headed for nearby RSPB Bempton Cliffs , a lovely reserve amazing numbers of Tree Sparrows around the feeders. As we walked towards the cliffs we could first hear the Gannets, then smelt them and finally saw them had a great hour trying to get pictures of them and a particularly annoying Fulmar, fantastic can only imagine what it must be like in the spring when all the other species that nest there are in situ! Felt a bit guilty eating an Eccles cake in Yorkshire but was tasty with a coffee in the visitor centre!
After this the good lady wanted a bit of culture so we spent the afternoon in Scarborough! A very nice Tutti-Frutti Ice Cream and some friendly Turnstones kept me going, apparently there are some nice buildings and stuff there as well ,nice to see it’s still a working fishing port though 40pence to go to the toilet is outrageous but I wasn’t allowed to show em what I thought about it!!
Back to the birding, thought we’d hit the moors and try for some Grouse however the road to Pickering was a disappointment lovely scenery but not only did I not see any Grouse scanning from 3 different locations I saw sod all else as well.
Still overall an enjoyable day, stopped on way back thought would just have a baguette for Tea didn’t bank on it coming with a Kilo of chips!! So full didn’t even have pud!!!
Day 3
Right enough phaffing about, hard-core birding, at Flamborough Head for dawn, no birds again but Seawatching was better 2 Manx Shearwaters south and a Sooty Shearwater north and a couple of RT Divers supplementing the numerous Gannets, at 8 o’clock I had to feed the carpark meter and I bumped into the local birder from the previous day he was just setting off and allowed me to tag along, all health and safety officers look away now! We proceeded to the Cliff edge when he promptly disappeared over the edge!!!! I looked over and he was heading down a path a mountain goat would have baulked at, a twisting mud covered trail with a good 100 foot drop on one side, my “you’re having a laugh” comment was greeted with a cheery “it’s not that bad though bit slippy in wellies” somehow I made it down proving to myself finally that I’m not that scared of heights and managing not to drop my Scope in the process, about a 3rd of the way down the path turned and we were on a quite wide ledge where we were greeted by 3 other birders! The reward for this was another Sooty Shearwater going south,3 Bonxies 3 Arctic Skuas including 2 pale phase birds and several more Red-throated Divers, unfortunately I could only stay an hour I made it back up the cliff alive and made it back to the B&B for another cracking fry up, food tastes better when you’ve been close to death!!!!
Inspired by this we decided to give Spurn another go, once again the weather let us down on arrival the heavens opened , to be fair to Spurn we had 5 Whinchats, a Wheatear , a Common Whitethroat and a Common Redstart without leaving the car!! We gave up and decided to try Sunk Island to see if we could find the Stork, Unfortunately Sunk Island turned out to be about 100 square miles of fields split by ditches having seen the Sussex one me heart weren’t in it and we quickly abandoned the attempt, we found ourselves at Paull Holme Strays nature reserve, this was nice place Linnets, Goldfinches and Reed Buntings all over and Curlews on the mud flats, unfortunately probably thanks to its proximity to Hull the first quarter of a mile or so of path was littered with dog shit not pleasant and a real shame to spoil such a nice place. Our final stop of the day was Fraisthorpe Beach lovely walk on a Sandy Beach a wader dropped in which I found out later was a Knot,2 Great Crested Grebe and some lovely Common Gulls were the best birds.
Dinner at the local pub was a nice curry and an old fashioned Coffee and Mandarin Gateaux for pud I had a couple of beers with this which seemed to increase my accent somewhat ,may have even said “Aye Up” at one point!!!
Day 4
So the last day and another great breakfast at our B&B, can highly recommend the Village Farm in Skipsea and I’m not just saying that because she gave me 2 delicious Chocolate Brownies for the journey home! We decided to break our trip home at Potteric Carr nature reserve a cracking place and we only did half of it, the highlight were 3 Willow Tits ,one of which gave great views on the feeders, nice Cherry Scone in the café as well!!
So not the megafest I was hoping for but a lovely break ,good company,friendly people, good food, some cracking scenery and some quality birds
Some Photos can be found here
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!3180&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28&group=0
Not all birds but probably be good if you're fond of Tree Sparrows and Gannets
Good Times!!
So just returned from a short break in East Yorkshire I think the accent I picked up is staring to fade!!
So the plan was hit the East Coast of Yorkshire, Spurn ,Flamborough etc wallow in the rares dripping off every bush, find a couple of firsts for Britain eat lots cake and return a hero!
Unfortunately it was pretty obvious the birding Gods were against us the weather forecast was poor with the wind all wrong! Undaunted we arrived at Spurn on the approach road a group of 20 birders had there scopes trained on a hedge, what had they found ?? Brown Shrike? Red-flanked, Bluetail?, Flamingo??? Leaping out of the car my “what are we on??” was greeted with the comment “think it’s a Spot Fly!” made it back to the car without hitting anybody and proceeded with the plan.
My first mistake was thinking Spurn Point was only a mile from the visitor centre, my second was in my hurry to get to grips with all the awesome birds I forgot to take any water, a hat and worse of all no cake!!! Four hours and six miles later we staggered back to the car ,it had been a nice walk but it’s a long way for 10 Wheatears, 5 Whinchats a few Mippits , a Yellow Willow Warbler that I couldn’t string into anything else and a Seal! Spurn redeemed itself on the way out when a group of birders were this time watching a Red-backed Shrike!!!
Knackered we booked in to our B&B in Skipsea and then had dinner at the Lobster Pot in Bridlington where the Highlight for me was the Gingerbread Cheesecake, Cake and Cheesecake in the same bowl whats not to like!!!
Day 2
We didn’t get out of the B&B till 9, blooming awesome fry up holding us back, Flamborough Head today. Stunning scenery unfortunately much the same story as Spurn no wind and few birds although the sea held some interest, a couple of Shags are always pleasant, a few Red-throated Divers, Fulmars and Gannets all over. On the way out I bumped into a local birder who put me on to a Yellow-legged Gull in the large flock on a ploughed field.
Next we headed for nearby RSPB Bempton Cliffs , a lovely reserve amazing numbers of Tree Sparrows around the feeders. As we walked towards the cliffs we could first hear the Gannets, then smelt them and finally saw them had a great hour trying to get pictures of them and a particularly annoying Fulmar, fantastic can only imagine what it must be like in the spring when all the other species that nest there are in situ! Felt a bit guilty eating an Eccles cake in Yorkshire but was tasty with a coffee in the visitor centre!
After this the good lady wanted a bit of culture so we spent the afternoon in Scarborough! A very nice Tutti-Frutti Ice Cream and some friendly Turnstones kept me going, apparently there are some nice buildings and stuff there as well ,nice to see it’s still a working fishing port though 40pence to go to the toilet is outrageous but I wasn’t allowed to show em what I thought about it!!
Back to the birding, thought we’d hit the moors and try for some Grouse however the road to Pickering was a disappointment lovely scenery but not only did I not see any Grouse scanning from 3 different locations I saw sod all else as well.
Still overall an enjoyable day, stopped on way back thought would just have a baguette for Tea didn’t bank on it coming with a Kilo of chips!! So full didn’t even have pud!!!
Day 3
Right enough phaffing about, hard-core birding, at Flamborough Head for dawn, no birds again but Seawatching was better 2 Manx Shearwaters south and a Sooty Shearwater north and a couple of RT Divers supplementing the numerous Gannets, at 8 o’clock I had to feed the carpark meter and I bumped into the local birder from the previous day he was just setting off and allowed me to tag along, all health and safety officers look away now! We proceeded to the Cliff edge when he promptly disappeared over the edge!!!! I looked over and he was heading down a path a mountain goat would have baulked at, a twisting mud covered trail with a good 100 foot drop on one side, my “you’re having a laugh” comment was greeted with a cheery “it’s not that bad though bit slippy in wellies” somehow I made it down proving to myself finally that I’m not that scared of heights and managing not to drop my Scope in the process, about a 3rd of the way down the path turned and we were on a quite wide ledge where we were greeted by 3 other birders! The reward for this was another Sooty Shearwater going south,3 Bonxies 3 Arctic Skuas including 2 pale phase birds and several more Red-throated Divers, unfortunately I could only stay an hour I made it back up the cliff alive and made it back to the B&B for another cracking fry up, food tastes better when you’ve been close to death!!!!
Inspired by this we decided to give Spurn another go, once again the weather let us down on arrival the heavens opened , to be fair to Spurn we had 5 Whinchats, a Wheatear , a Common Whitethroat and a Common Redstart without leaving the car!! We gave up and decided to try Sunk Island to see if we could find the Stork, Unfortunately Sunk Island turned out to be about 100 square miles of fields split by ditches having seen the Sussex one me heart weren’t in it and we quickly abandoned the attempt, we found ourselves at Paull Holme Strays nature reserve, this was nice place Linnets, Goldfinches and Reed Buntings all over and Curlews on the mud flats, unfortunately probably thanks to its proximity to Hull the first quarter of a mile or so of path was littered with dog shit not pleasant and a real shame to spoil such a nice place. Our final stop of the day was Fraisthorpe Beach lovely walk on a Sandy Beach a wader dropped in which I found out later was a Knot,2 Great Crested Grebe and some lovely Common Gulls were the best birds.
Dinner at the local pub was a nice curry and an old fashioned Coffee and Mandarin Gateaux for pud I had a couple of beers with this which seemed to increase my accent somewhat ,may have even said “Aye Up” at one point!!!
Day 4
So the last day and another great breakfast at our B&B, can highly recommend the Village Farm in Skipsea and I’m not just saying that because she gave me 2 delicious Chocolate Brownies for the journey home! We decided to break our trip home at Potteric Carr nature reserve a cracking place and we only did half of it, the highlight were 3 Willow Tits ,one of which gave great views on the feeders, nice Cherry Scone in the café as well!!
So not the megafest I was hoping for but a lovely break ,good company,friendly people, good food, some cracking scenery and some quality birds
Some Photos can be found here
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=6356FB2BA7828F28!3180&cid=6356FB2BA7828F28&group=0
Not all birds but probably be good if you're fond of Tree Sparrows and Gannets
Good Times!!
