Blue sky, crisp frost and light breeze, I take the train to Bridlington, aiming to get to the Sewerby Steps and back. The Gypsey Race is in spate, I've never seen it flowing so strong.
I can't help but to have a peek on the south side of the harbour wall before heading north. A Purple Sandpiper and an Oystercatcher are the highlights.
Purple Sandpiper
Oystercatcher.
The waves are strong on south beach, and there is a lot of mist in the air. I'm glad I'm heading north!
Cormorants on the South Beach.
At the harbour there is a flock of Dunlin bathing. It's almost low tide.
Dunlin.
I move onto the north promenade. A pair of Turnstones are squabbling for a dead crab, but a crow arrives and picks it for a bit, before leaving it again to the Turnstones.
There are many freshwater seepages and streams across the beach and a group of gulls are having a bath on one of them.
This is a seepage on the soft cliff, where the deposits from the water have hardened sand into some kind of sandstone. The water flows over it and the sandstone has rims holding the water in.
This is tufa stone, the deposits have hardened around horsetail stems. There are a lot of horsetails on this area of the cliff.
Now the cliff looks like a conglomerate of gravel. One of the holes near the top is the best rabbit burrow in Yorkshire: south-facing, with wonderful sea views and safe too atop the cliff (plenty of grass on clifftop)
There were many Robins on the cliffs, two of these were chasing, but they they settled for a few minutes and got my first photo of three Robins!
I get to the Sewerby buried palaeobeach, where the cliff line goes under the glacial till. There is little to see today as there has been recent till falls onto the chalk edge.
A pair of House Sparrows came down to the beach to feed on seaweed. I've seen this behaviour before, maybe seaweed has some minerals that are lacking in their more terrestrial diet.
As usual, a Rock Pipit near the Sewerby steps.
A good day for basking on roofs.
I climb the steps and head back to Bridlington Station along the cliff top.
There are a lot of Redshanks in the harbour looking ready to roost.
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