North Landing to Thornwick Bay

A beautiful sunny day with light wind, I headed to Flamborough early in the morning. I took advantage of the low tide and went down to the North Landing beach, where I ticked the first Puffins for the year. A Grey Seal was visible on and off on the surf line, where rafts of Guillemots and Razorbills sat on the water. The usual assortment of sea birds around, with the also usual House Martins back in the bay, with a sprinkle of Sand Martins too. I walked towards Thornwick Bay. Just after Holmes Gut, on a gully by the cliff Three Wall Browns were chasing, with one occasionally settling to feed on Sea Pink.
 I carried on towards Thornwick Pools, a site I hadn't visited before. It took a while to find, but it is a lovely, open and shallow wetland with a narrow belt of reeds and protected by an earth bund. There are two hides, the lower one had the best light. A pair of Little Ringed plovers were very excited in one of the low islands, doing parallel little races, hunched up, yaffling and making all sort of odd noises. In the hide I meet Andy Hood, from Flamborough Bird Observatory. After a good chat, it's lunch time and I descent onto Thornwick Bay, realising I've never beed there. There is a beach of rough pale and chalk boulders. The chalk makes a shallow platform, giving the water a beautiful turquoise colour. A perfect place for a picnic.

Raft of Guillemots, Razorbills, a Puffin and some Kittiwakes.

North Landing.

Razorbills.

The cleptoparasitic bee Melecta albifrons.

View from the cliff east of North Landing, with Bempton in the distance.

Holmes Gut.

Thornwick Pool.

Shelduck.

Singing Linnet.

Puffin.

Thornwick Bay.

Wall Brown Butterfly.

Singing Sedge Warbler.

Possibly Nomada fabriciana on daisy. A cleptoparasite of several mining bees.

Another view of Holmes Gut.

North Landing.

Thornwick's Bay.

 Thornwick's Bay panoramic.