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.

A bracing Bempton Cliffs with Hull Nats

 

Despite the challenging conditions, with a Yellow Wind alert for most of the day, we went ahead with the planned field trip. There were increasingly stronger winds and later drizzle that stung like hail. Overall, we had an excellent day. There were plenty of auks on the cliffs and on the sea, and Gannets and Fulmars were also assembled on their nest sites. The softer light than in the summer, aided with photography, and I was pretty pleased with some of my photos today, including the Guillemot above.

Razorbill pair.

Razorbill flap.

A bridled Guillemot by Bartlett Nab. We saw two. From this viewpoint we watched some porpoises too, but I was unable to take any photos as they were surfacing very briefly.

Herring Gull.

A fencing pair of Gannets.

Fulmar.

Fulmar pair.

Peregrine over Filey Bay.

We sheltered from the relentless wind on he lower stage of Jubilee Corner. The flock of feral pigeons were being regularly fushed and the reason soon became apparent with a Peregrine powering after them. We witnessed no catch but wathching a hunting peregrine is always exhilarating. At that stage, we were all hankering for lunch and a hot drink, so we headed for the visitor centre. While we had lunch, we met with the RSPB site manager Dave O’Hara and birder extraordinaire Will Scott, who were kind enough to show us a woodcock in The Dell. Will has a thermal monocular, which facilitated the task enormously. Even when we knew where the woodcock was sitting, its amazing camouflage made it so tricky to spot! 

I took a photo of the view with the thermal monocular, the hot spot of the Woodcock under the gorse is very obvious.

Can you see it?

I have centred the Woodcock's eye in this photo to make it easier to spot.

After the woodcock we watched the feeders for a while. The RSPB volunteers had gathered there, sheltered from the cold and wind. Some of our members wanted to try for Shag, so we headed towards Staple Newk. We watched Razorbills slow flapping and then whirring wings as they left their nests, which was something I have never witnessed before, maybe to do with the wind? Two members who persisted a bit longer managed to photograph some Shags at sea, so it was only Puffin and Kittiwake that we missed from the breeding sea birds at Bempton, not bad for a February visit, and also, a good excuse to visit Bempton later in the year!

Train trip: Bempton Cliffs

 

After finding bush-crickets in Scarborough and Filey I was keen to see if they were around Bempton, as they were no records of them there. I took the 8:21 train trip to Bempton and got there without hitches this time. The weather was sunny on the way there, but windy, and soon after I arrived, dark clouds gathered and it started to rain. I pushed towards the cliffs and was very surprised to find that there were still Gannet chicks on the cliffs, just a handful, but at least two were still downy.

A very late, downy 'guga'

A busy Gannet 'shelf'.

These two young gannets looked ready to fledge.

A pair of Great Black-backed gulls loafing on the exposed rocks on the ebbing tide.

Shag.

Herring Gull.

Pink-footed Geese. Several skeins flew south coming in from the sea. About 10 House Martins flew north.

Another late species, a single Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Willow Emerald, now breeding in the reserve pond.

Many Common Darters around, particularly along the wildlife paths.

Red Admiral, very plentiful this year.

The sun shone after a while, and I got the bat detector out. Weather was very cool, but soon the sunshine encouraged a Long-winged Conehead to call. I even managed to spot him and a female, basking nearby. No sign of Roesel's though.

Long-winged Coneheads.

As I searched for the bush-crickets, I was told there was a Short-eared Owl perched nearby. It was indeed, very active looking around and preening.

Short-eared Owl.

Short-eared Owl.

Kestrel.

A large flock of Goldfinches roamed across the fields, with a smaller one of Linnets. The wind was picking up so I headed back to the visitor centre for some lunch before heading back to the station.