Tuesday 23 June 2015

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.

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