I joined Dave Parmenter and Mike Collard on a long days twitch to Bempton Cliffs near Bridlington to see the Black-browed Albatross that had been frequenting the cliffs since late June. However the bird was not present every day and would go missing for long periods. So we decided to choose a day when the bird had been seen on the cliffs the previous evening and to arrive at the site at dawn, before the bird had left the site. So that meant leaving home shortly after midnight!!
We did arrive shortly after dawn but were not first on site. Several other people had beaten us to it but despite a lot of scanning of the cliffs we could not find the Albatross. Then about 5:30am someone spotted "Albert" as he flew from the cliff. It was soon lost to view but found a little later on the water off of Staple Newk. We had to quickly move locations to see the bird and even then it was not close as you can see from my photos below! But at least we saw the bird whereas quite a few people had failed to do so over previous weeks.
Black-browed Albatross - popularly known as "Albert". Sorry about the rubbish photos but he was a long way out. The scope views were OK though.
Gannets nesting on Staple Newk
A pair of Gannets preening each other, showing a strong bond.
The short video clip below is of the two birds above showing a strong pair bond.
We left Bempton Cliffs mid-morning and headed to Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire, which was roughly on the way home. It also had been home to a Pacific Golden Plover over the past few days! It took over two hours to get there.
On arriving we found the car park almost full so there were plenty of birders on site. We checked in at the information centre and were amazed by the large number of waders in view. There were hundreds of Black-tailed Godwits and Knot, many of which were is partial summer plumage. Also on view were plenty of Avocet, Dunlin, Lapwing, Common Sandpiper and Ruff.
Keen to see the Pacific Golden Plover we soon walked towards the sea wall to view the field where the Plover was. It did not disappoint and was on view all of the time we were there. In the nearby pools we had very close up views of a Wood Sandpiper, Avocets, Little Ringed Plovers, a Snipe and about 100 Dunlin (see video clip).
We then moved up onto the sea wall to view some of the other pools and picked up Spotted Redshank, Redshank, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Greenshank, Oystercatcher and a Whimbrel, the latter on the seaward side of the wall. In the distance there were a group of at least eight Spoonbills.
On the way back to the car park we stopped off at the visitor centre for another look (and a coffee) and added Green Sandpiper to our wader list. This list ended up at 17 which was pretty good but with a bit more time we could have explored the hides on the reserve and increased on this.
Pacific Golden Plover - Showing some of the key ID features of this species. The video clip below has clearer views.
A short video clip of three of the birds seen at Frampton Marsh, including the Pacific Golden Plover
Avocet feeding close to the track.
Dunlin - Lots present feeding avidly.
A Dunlin with colour ring Yellow "CX1" Details of the origins of this bird will be added here in due course.
Black-tailed Godwit - A rubbish photo taken through glass at the information centre. White + White on right leg and Yellow over Orange on the left leg. Details of the origins will be added here in due course.
