Tag Archives: Fulmar

Isle of Portland – April 2017

Posted on by

For my last day at the coast I decided to go to the Isle of Portland. I knew there were a lot of migrants coming in so thought I’d go and see what was about. Now I knew I was probably going to struggle identifying some of them but it was worth having a go. 

It was a lovely sunny morning when I reached the car park and there was only a light wind. My first spot was in the car park, a Song Thrush. I then headed to the cliff edge, where a kind man pointed out 2 Purple Sandpipers. These were a first for me and I slowly managed to climb down some of the rocks to get on to a lower platform to get a little closer, although they were still a distance away. While watching the sea and cliffs I spotted, Gannet, Razorbills and Guillemots. Thankfully I spent a weekend at RSPB Bempton Cliffs last year so could easily identify them. 

After lunch I headed over to the grassland areas to look for Wheatears, I had never seen one and wanted to find them. I was sat watching some vegetation when a man asked me if I had seen the Little Owls. I didn’t even know there were any! He showed me where they had been seen in the morning and half an hour later we saw an Owl! This was the biggest surprise of the day. I had never seen a Little Owl before and I stayed watching for as long as it was around. It was a lovely experience 🙂

I watched many little birds flitting around at the time but was unsure of what they were; being able to identify them from my photos when I got home, I now know. I did get a little stuck with this one but now I realise it’s another Cetti’s Warbler 🙂

My full sightings list:
Birds: Song Thrush, Sand Martin, Purple Sandpiper, Gannet, Little Owl, Wheatear, Cetti’s Warbler, Dunnock, Fulmar, Guillemot, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Razorbill

RSPB Bempton Cliffs – May 2016

Posted on by

RSPB Bempton Cliffs - PuffinDay 1 – I arrived at RSPB Bempton Cliffs at midday. Knowing I wouldn’t have long as I needed to book into the campsite, I headed for the first viewing point. I must admit I had never seen a Puffin and that was one of the reasons to head to Bempton Cliffs.  Half an hour after arriving on site I got to see my first pair asleep on the cliff face.

 

Puffin’s are ever-so cute, they are small, about 8 inches tall, so are quite difficult to spot amongst the other birds, the best thing to do is look out for their orange feet! Puffin’s are on the Red List of Conservation Concern which means we really need to look out for these little feathered friends.  They are on selected areas of our coasts for only a few months of the year (March/April – mid August) and this is where they breed.  Puffin’s only have one Puffling a year so each one is of great importance to their numbers.

There are volunteers at the viewing platforms with scopes at Bempton Cliffs so if you don’t have binoculars you will still be able to get a good view if they are a long way off.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs - PuffinAfter booking into the campsite I took a walk along the cliff top from the site. I didn’t get too far as there had been a fairly recent landslide and I wasn’t 100% confident about carrying on! I did however see a Puffin 🙂

 

 


Day 2 – I was up early and got to Bempton Cliffs at about 9am. From the first viewing platform I saw 3 Puffins. I’m sure they were trying to decide who was going to leave the cliff first and I’m sure one was pushed! As you can imagine I stayed watching this story unfold for quite a while.

Further along the cliff while I was watching some Razorbills a Puffin landed and started to collect nesting material according to the volunteer he was coming back to the same spot so I waited for him to reappear again.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs - Bridled GuillemotA nice man pointed out to me that there was a Bridled Guillemot just along the cliff, I thanked him and went to look for it.  I wasn’t entirely sure what a Bridled Guillemot was but he had told me that it had the white marking on its face, like it was wearing glasses. Guillemots all have this marking though most are black, Bridled shows up as white.

After lunch I headed down to the other end of the cliffs, I was looking out for Puffins again, this time I spotted one inside of her burrow; a man next to me said that in the morning he had seen both the male and female in there.  Puffin’s normally dig burrows but on the cliffs they find crevices to breed in.

Sunrise at FlamboroughDay 3 – One great thing about camping is waking in the middle of the night and seeing the sunrise.

One piece of advice from today; if you go to Bempton Cliffs purely for Puffins plan to go on more than one day! I went to see Sand Martin’s in the morning (more about that in my next post) so only spent the afternoon at the cliffs. I didn’t see one Puffin! It did however mean I concentrated more on the other birds 🙂  Although you are looking at the individual birds you also need to look at the cliffs as a whole and the shear number of birds that are there, its quite amazing.

My full list of sightings for the visit:
Puffin, Razorbill, Herring Gull, Gannet, Guillemot and Bridled, Kittiwake, Tree Sparrow, Jackdaw, Fulmar and Kestrel