Train trip: Filey to Scarborough

Sunny, and mild day, beautiful for a long walk. I take the 8:21 train to Filey and I'm on my walk from the station at 9:30. Jackdaws are picking acorns and cracking them open on roofs. I walk to the Country Park. A Stonechat flies to a tree top. The sea is like glass, not a breeze. It's 9 oC, but the Long-winged Coneheads are basking and calling from the grassy edges of the footpath.

It's acorn season for this Jackdaw on a roof in Filey

Stonechat.

Three basking coneheads.

The walk is about 17 km station to station. I make slow progress at first, entertained by several butterflies and a group of Grey Partridges, about 7, on a field margin.

Grey Partridges.

Grey Partridges.

A pristine male Common Blue damselfly.

The walk traverses a succession of bays and headlands, the scenery is truly breathtaking. Newbiggin Cliffs in the background.

A Grey Seal bobs, resting just offshore.

Gristhorpe Cliff in the distance. Many seals are resting on the rocks just off the tip. 

I think this is a young Grey Seal.

And a Common Seal? There are quite a few seals, Oystercatchers, Little Egrets, Curlew and Turnstones on the rocks. A good spot!

Just by the steps up Cunstone Nab I find some grasshoppers, this is a Lesser Marsh, at one of its northernmost locations.

Small Tortoiseshell.

Hovering Kestrel.

I get to Cayton Bay. There are toilets and refreshments, and wonderful views (top shot). As I look down from the top towards the beach I spot a Grey Seal. Someone is taking a photo. I descend the ramp and find out the seal is quite dead.

Grey Seal.

I have my lunch at the beach, just at bottom of the cliff. There are some surfers in the water. I carry on and come across a couple that I've seen the previous day at Hayburn Wyke, they must have been walking the Cleveland Way.

Painted Lady.

Scarborough is in the horizon, now within reach. I check the time and my progress and find that I can make the 3:02 if I walk quickly, and that's what I do. I get to the station in time to get a coffee and board the train. A wonderful walk that I hope to do again.