Bempton Birds and Bridlington Beach - Saturday 30th June 2015

Me, my brother Luke, and my papa set off early for the two-hour journey to the fascinating Bempton Cliffs on Flamborough Head. So early, in fact, we had our breakfast in the car (and made a mess!).

It was a sunny day, and as we approached Bempton a Kestrel hovered over its prey by the roadside. As we passed through the new visitor centre, we stopped to do some craft activities. I made a shark from a plate, and some dragonflies. Luke made a colourful Puffin picture.

Eventually, we headed down to the cliffs, passing the Tree Sparrows on the feeders. At the cliffs we looked down and saw some Kittiwakes - our first cliff-nesting bird of the day. Some Kittiwakes were sitting on nests.

 Kittiwake

We went along the cliffs until we saw some Gannets. One was sitting on a little chick.

Gannets

Just above the Gannet and it's chick, we admired our first Puffin. We eventually saw around five Puffins. We strolled along the cliff edge, seeing lots of Razorbills and Guillemots.

 Puffin

 Razorbill and Puffin

The path was bordered by beautiful flowers such as Cow Parsley, Bluebells, and pink flowers called Red Campion. Fluttering over the Red Campion flowers were Rivulet moths.

 Bluebell

 Cow Parsley

Red Campion

Further along the cliffs we spied our first Fulmar. It has a tube on its bill to help survive on the salty sea water. Also on the cliffs were Rock Doves - they looked just like Feral Pigeons, but they live on cliffs. Daddy needed the toilet, and as we waited for him we saw a Meadow Pipit.

Meadow Pipit

We headed back and Luke spotted a Black-and-Red Froghopper, which looked just like a ladybird.

Black-and-Red Froghopper (and Daddy's fingers!)

A Small Tortoiseshell butterfly was on the path in front of us. It had orange, black and white wings.

Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

We arrived at Staple Newk at the southern end of the reserve. There were loads of Gannet nests here. Many of them had bits of plastic in them.

Gannet nests - you can see the plastic in them

Inspired by Springwatch Unsprung and the Two-minute Beach Clean campaign, we decided to do a beach clean at Bridlington beach. After paddling in the sea we spent  15 minutes picking up any litter we could find. We found three bag-fulls!

We had a fun and adventurous day at Bempton.

The big surprise

This week we put a mini bird table out in our garden hoping to see some wildlife. 

We put some seeds on it to attract some birds. 

First a magpie came to our table and ate some seeds.

 

Some time later a fat pigeon came along and booted the magpie out of the way.

  

They began to stare at each other.

Along came a dancing crow.

Then the magpie came back.

Late afternoon a beautiful jay came.

Then we got a surprise! My first fox came into my garden. 

The next day we got a collared dove with a feral pigeon.

Finally a cheeky squirrel came! You can see him running along on the left-hand side of the photo.

Things around my garden

Here are the beautiful butterfies that were in my garden last weekend (26th-27th July).

Peacock Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly (underwing)

When the Peacock's wings at folded up, they look like wood. This is probably camouflage to help it hide from birds.

Small Tortoiseshell

Green-veined White

There were also two different types of bee in the garden.

 White-tailed Bumblebee

Honey Bee

Denso-Marston Nature Reserve

Me and Luke went to Denso-Marston Nature Reserve with Airedale Otters (Daddy's nature group), on Sunday 13th July. The weather was very sunny - we had to wear our sun hats!

Firstly, we looked at the moths that the warden had caught the night before.

Large Yellow Underwing moth

Buff Arches moth

We watched this Grey Squirrel as it watched us! The squirrel was clinging on to a branch with its hands, feet and tail.

The lovely Grey Squirrel

As we were walking we saw a Banded Snail.

Banded Snail

We walked for a few more minutes into the woods and found some large wooden boards on the ground. The boards were placed there so that Wood Mice would build their nest under them and we could lift up the boards to see them. We lifted up the first board and saw some Wood Mice and a cosy nest.

Wood Mouse

Wood Mouse nest

We continued through the woods and found more boards. Underneath the final board was a Common Frog and a Smooth Newt.

Common Frog

Smooth Newt

Finally, we went over the woodedn bridge to the pond. We got nets and trays from the storeroom and started pond-dipping. We found Smooth Newts, Greater and Lesser Water-boatmen, Hog Louse, Blood Worm, Flatworm, Water Mite, Pond Skater, Phantom Midge, Freshwater Mussel and Shrimp, Ram's-horn Snail, and a Whirligig Beetle.

At the end, we all we given minibeast posters.

Rodley Nature Reserve

Me, my brother Luke and my Daddy went to Rodley Nature Reserve on Sunday 29th June 2014. The weather was cloudy but warm. Along the willow path we found a Large Skipper. A Large Skipper is a type of butterfly, which looks a bit like a moth. It has orange and yellow wings that look like fire.

Large Skipper

Also along the Willow Path we saw a spider with its nest made of leaves woven together with spider silk.

Spider

Spider's nest

We saw four Common Tern chicks: two on one raft and two on another. The chicks were fluffy and grey and had pink bills with black tips. The adults were keeping guard and bringing them food. Adult Common Terns are mostly white with black caps, and have red bills with black tips and pink feet.

Common Terns

We couldn't see the Great Crested Grebe nest that was there the week before. We did spot a Kestrel in a Sycamore tree. The leaves of the Sycamore tree are star shaped, and the seeds are like helicopters.

Kestrel

We went into the wild flower meadow for a picnic. The sun came out and we found a Ringlet butterfly. The Ringlet is brown with small white rings on its wings.

Picnic