A family walk today, we head to Flamborough village, the start of this circular walk for the Migrants Way. It is sunny and warm, with a light breeze. We walk along South Sea Road to reach South Landing, where I left the way last week. The plan is to walk all round the peninsula on the cliff top path, until we get to North Landing, then back to Flamborough village.
South Landing
We descend the slope on the road to the landing. The ravine at South Landing is an ancient valley, with a glacial till infill, probably dating at least from the previous interglacial. The tide is right out, exposing the intertidal platform and sandy beach, and two parallel rocky spits, possibly the remains of an old pier?
South Landing. Two parallel strips of rocks are visible at low tide.
After a quick stop at the beach, we climb the steep steps to take the clifftop path. There are so many Wall Browns about, flitting alongside the path, briefly settling to bask.
Wall Brown, photo by my daughter.
House Martins are a constant presence along the walk, probably indicating the presence of nests on the cliffs all round the peninsula. A Kestrel hangs from the sky ahead of us, immobile, over the cliff. Some Herring Gulls passing by swipe at it. A Fulmar circles around the cliffs, at some point making a low pass over the wheat, an incongruent image that I fail to capture with my camera.
I hadn't checked the tide, but it was a nice surprise that it was so low. It does make a difference to have the intertidal platform exposed even when walking on the clifftop, as there is so much more to see. A Grey Heron flying along the cliffs sends the loafing gulls flying. Oystercatchers and Curlews feed on the rocks. The path is relatively flat and straight, flanked by a grassy strip on the cliff side and arable fields. Occasionally, small creeks have more scrubby vegetation and need to be crossed with steps, or walked around.
The chalk forming the cliffs now exposed from Sewerby to Reighton developed on shallow, very warm seas between 100 and 70 million years ago. The skeletons of tiny planktonic organisms, mostly those of Coccolithophores a single cell algae surrounded by calcite plates, rained on the sediments over millions of years. This lime-rich mud at the bottom of the sea got transformed by pressure and heat into chalk. At Bridlington Bay the chalk bed is now between -30 to -35 m under sea level. The chalk was formerly more extensive, then much of it was eroded, leaving the ridge of the Wolds and Flamborough Headland.
Rising over fields of barley and wheat, we can see the lighthouse at Flamborough Head.
Seals
I notice some odd lumps on the rocks jutting from the peninsula, they are seals hauled on the rocks in clumps! We count over 60, but there are probably about a 100. Most of them are Grey Seals, with a few some common seals too. We can hear them howling, as they are jostling for position on the rocks, and many are on the edge of rocky shelves comically trying not to get their flippers wet. It is quite common to see Seals around Flamborough, but the most I've seen there is six or seven, this is by far the largest seal concentration I've seen in East Yorkshire.
A menacing raincloud is coming our way. We are now at the head of the cape, the lighthouse just by us. It is only light rain and it stops soon.
We stop for lunch on a pill box by the Golf Course, overlooking Selwicks bay and the sea.
A cluster of Gorse Shieldbugs, Piezodorus lituratus, including adults, and nymphs of various sizes beautifully camouflaged on gorse seedheads.
Cormorants and Shags pass by over the sea. Gannets fly straight east in small groups, almost touching the water with their wings. 
Shags and Herring Gull.
Lone Kittiwake chick.
As we are arriving at North Landing, a Short-eared Owl flies over us towards the lighthouse, I manage a single sharp shot. What a wonderful sighting!
Yellowhammer.
Singing Swallow at Flamborough village.
Fulmars underwent a spectacular range expansion and population increase, from the only place where they bred in St Kilda to then Shetland and steady colonisation of all rocky British shores. According to Nelson, before the 1900 they were rare winter and autumn visitors, most frequently met by offshore fishermen, who gave them the name of Mollemoke. As described in the monograph by Fisher, which documented the expansion around the UK, Fulmars first bred in the cliffs of Flamborough and Bempton around a century ago, the first eggs were collected by cliff climmers in 1922. Since then, they have steadily increased their numbers. However, Fulmars have declined 38% during the present century in the UK, and also at Flamborough and Bempton, so that they are now Amber listed, and considered as endangered in Europe.
Walk information
10 km circular. Start and end at Flamborough Mereside, TA228705 (free parking). Toilets on South Landing (Living Seas Centre), and Flamborough Lighthouse and North Landing car parks. Access to beach at South Landing, Thornwick Bay and North Landing, best with low tides.
More information
Flamborough is a bird migration hotspot. If you are visiting, check out the website or twitter stream of the Flamborough Bird Observatory for the latest sightings.
Sections of the cliffs and grasslands in the peninsula, East and West from North Landing are a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve.
Fisher, James,1952. The Fulmar. New Naturalist, No. 6. 496 pp.
Nelson, T. H. 1907. The Birds Of Yorkshire: Vol. II. 843 pp.
Walk from Danes Dyke to Thornwick bay: https://www.walkingenglishman.com/eastyorkshire09.html
The beaches at Flamborough:
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