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.
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