Train trip: Walking from Bempton to Filey

This trip had been on my wish list of walks for a while, and today, sunny weather and ebbing tide, I took the 7:25 train to Bempton. On the way, on a field north of Cottingham I manage a photo of nine Roe Deer. A Yellowhammer sits tight while a male Sparrowhawh flies past over my head on Cliff road at Bempton. A Brown Hare seems to be following a track on a field, zig-zagging and eventually coming quite close.

Roe Deer.

Brown Hare.

Red-legged Partidge at Cliff Road.

Singing Yellowhammer by the Dell.

I sit watching the birds at the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve feeders while I wait for the cafe to open, at 9:30. After a hot drink, I'm ready for the walk. There seems to be fewer birds on the cliffs than on our visit a couple of weeks ago, but it is still busy. I don't linger much, but a Stonechat by the military area is nice.

Feral Pigeons.

Guillemots.

Stonechat.

Razorbill.

I leave the reserve. The cliff is very exposed to the westerly wind. Despite this, Linnets and Skylarks are feeding in the fields. Two Buzzards are playing with the wind on a ridge, one of them seem to be carrying a stick on its talons. A Peregrine swoops at one of them, and then hangs from the air over the cliff edge, hovering.

Pill Millipede.

Hovering Peregrine.

Buzzard.

Peregrine fly past.

The view from the trig point, the highest part of the cliffs at Buckton, at 135 m OSL.

Shortly after, the path down to Speeton Sands is being reprofiled and repaired with a small digger. It's relatively easy going until the steep steps down the ravine onto the beach by Black Cliff, which are in need of some TLC, the clay having eroded behind the retaining boards. The ravine highest humidity shows in a diversity of ferns and some tree cover in the shape of sycamores. There is a nice pond on a shelf near the ravine.

View east with the pond in the foreground.

I check some recent falls of large lumps of the Jurassic clay, and pick up some fossils.

Small Belemnites stick out of the clay.

Ammonite.

Armoured clay 'sausages' rather than balls on the beach.

Carline Thistle. one I like to record.

There is an explosion of flowering Colt's Foot like little sunshines on the cliff face.

The remains of a porpoise on the beach.

Fluke.

My first dronefly of the year.

Quite a lot of Cuttlefish bones on the beach, the largest about 17 cm.

It is a walk of two halves, the second part taking place along the long exposed beach, at low tide. It is much sheltered with barely any noticeable wind on the beach. After a quick lunch stop I carry on beach combing and make it to Filey with just enough time to grab a hot chocolate in the cafe and board my train back home.

Walk information. Distance between the stations: almost 17 km. Toilet facilities and cafes at Bempton, Hunmanby Gap and Filey. The walk is best attempted with an ebbing tide, as there is barely any beach at high tide. Poor accessibility and hard going, especially on the way down to the beach.