Snowing In Filey!

Today was the hottest day of the year so far and the 'snowing' refers to a beautiful little bird I have been searching for, for ages.

Today we went to Filey and Bempton in search of Snow Buntings and sea birds.

Firstly we went up to North Cliff Country Park as this was the place where the Snow Buntings had been sighted. As we were walking along the cliff top we saw Gannets, Fulmars, Cormorants and Herring Gulls flying past the sea also Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were singing in the fields. Some of the Meadow Pipits occasionally flew onto the fence which allowed fantastic photo opportunities.

Meadow Pipit

 

Afterwards we had a walk through a field of where we thought the Snow Buntings might have been. As we were walking through we found even more Skylarks and we also saw a few Linnets but still no Snow Buntings. By now we had been searching through the field for at least an hour, just as we were about to give up hope I spotted a group of about 30 birds fly past us. They landed just ahead of us, I quickly looked through my bins and then realised it was the stunning Snow Buntings!!! I am extremely pleased to have seen them as it is a bird I have always wanted to see. We kept on creeping closer, at first they didn't seem to let us get very close but after about 10mins they didn't seem that bothered. At some points some of them came within a few feet! Sadly after about 40mins of watching them a dog walker flushed them and they flew quite far away but we went straight back over to them. After a good hour and a half we left them in peace to feed in the field. What brilliant birds!

 

Snow Buntings

 

After that fantastic moment we decided to go to Bempton. On the way back to the car we had a cracking Peregrine fly over our heads. When we arrived at Bempton we went over to some feeders right outside the visitor centre where usually Tree Sparrows showed really well. Loads of them showed really well sitting at the top of a bush just beside the feeders.

 

Tree Sparrow

 

Afterwards we had a walk over to the cliffs in hope of getting some good Gannet shots. Loads of the sea birds showed really well including Fulmars and the Gannets. We had a walk around another part of the cliffs where we had even better views of Gannets. On the sea there was several Guillemots and Razorbills.

 

Gannets

 

After this superb days birding we headed of back home.