Birding Group Trip to Blacktoft Sands, North Cave and Bempton Cliffs 3 – 4 June 2019

The fist birding group outing of the month was an overnight trip; this time to Blacktoft Sands, North Cave and Bempton Cliffs. This was our first chance of the year to get most of the cliff-nesting birds that we had not already got. An additional bonus was a couple of other passerine year ticks.

We started off, as usual, at the RSPB Blacktoft Sands reserve where we had much better weather than the previous visit we made where it was pouring with rain all the time we were there. This time we had better weather and only a few drops of rain.

It has to be said that it wasn’t that good; we failed to see the elusive female Montague’s Harrier that has been around recently and perhaps the only really good sighting was of a Hobby flying fast right part a hide. The reserve people had though it was a Peregrine but Richard and I both though it Hobby. In any case it was such a quick fly-though that none of us had a really good chance to ID it.
There were plenty of Marsh Harriers around, with up to five in the air at one time, and you get very close views of them at this reserve – but no Monty.
We were a little disappointed but we were to have a really good bird at North Cave where we went to next.
Anne and I arrived early and went to the main hide where we sat down and had lunch. There were the usual ducks and, interestingly, a small group of Common Terns. We walked down the path dropping in at all the other hides and got a Med Gull (and an Otter). Throughout the site there were lots of Sand Martins but not the huge number of Hirundines we have seen there previously.

Eventually we ended up back at the main hide again and were very excites to have pointed out to us a Green Woodpecker perched on a fence pole right in front of the side window of the hide. It was quickly off but we were very pleased to have actually seen one. We hear them more often that we see them so this was a year tick – at least visually.

The rest of the birding group had broken up into two other groups and gone the long walk around the lakes in opposite directions but when it got to comparing notes we seem to have seen more than they did which was nice for us.

At one point when we were driving down the lane from the main hide to the car park at the road end of the reserve, we came across a chap staring into a hedge so we stopped and asked him what he had. It was a Lesser Whitethroat and I managed to hear it for quite a long spell but neither of us could locate it from within the dense hedge that it was singing from. Still, I am counting it as a good year tick since it was clearly singing like a Lesser Whitethroat and the other birder had actually seen it before we drove up to him.

By this time it was around 3:30 so Anne and I headed off for a local pub where we sat outside and had a pint – well I did. Then it was off to the Travelodge. We ate that night at the Fox and Coney (52 Market Place, South Cave HU15 2AT) which wasn’t very good. I am sure we ate at somewhere much better the last time but none of us could remember what is was so we ended up back there.

Next day we were up fairly early and stopped for breakfast at The Ferguson Fawcitt Arms at Walkington Village. This was not as good as before and seems to have turned into a rather pretentious coffee shop. You can get breakfast there but it is a complicated business and perhaps not to be repeated. The location is now the only thing it has going for it.

That done, tough and we were off to Bempton Cliffs where it remained largely dry. It was pretty busy but not as busy as I have seen it before. They charge £5 entry to non-members which I do not recall them doing in the past. We headed down to the left for all the Gannets and we had the usual good views and high numbers of Gannets, Kittiwakes and Razorbills. For once, though, the Razorbills seemed more numerous than the Guillemots. There were quite a few Puffins on the water and a few on the grassy slopes of the cliffs – more than we have seen here previously. As we walked down the path, there were Skylarks, Linnets and Whitethroats aplenty. At the other end of the path (to the left from reception) we had a very good view of a Corn Bunting which was a nice year tick and, although I know they have small numbers there, I did not really expect to see one. One bird that seemed to elude us was Fulmar – we only saw one! – but we had seen more at Hunstanton Cliffs earlier in the year.

So we had some good birds at Bempton including five year ticks but, as the afternoon wore on and it started to get cloudy, we decided to head back home. As last time we did this return journey it was a nightmare of torrential rain and, in all honesty, apart from the chance of seeing Monys at Blacktoft, I don’t think the birding group should do this trip again. It is too far for what you can see nearer without encountering the same density of traffic – particularly trucks.

Bird Sightings Blacktoft Sands 3rd June 2019

Bird Sightings North Cave 3rd June 2019

Bird Sightings Bempton Cliffs 4th June 2019