East Coast Crackers!

Yesterday we had a very enjoyable visit to Flamborough. We were hoping to see either the Crag Martin or the Tawny Pipit. On the cliffs at Flamborough in occasionally started to rain but most of the time it wasn't that bad.

As soon as we got out of the car we spotted a Wheatear on top of a small building. We kept creeping a little closer and closer until we were enjoying decent views. On our way down to the cliffs we spotted another Wheatear, this one showed a lot better than the other one, it let us get within a few meters.

Wheatear

 

Afterwards we had a walk along the cliffs where we saw Razorbills, Guillemots, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and some lovely Puffins! It was great watching some of the Puffins go in and out of their burrows. A little further on I spotted a duck on the water, I took a few shots and I noticed it was an Eider! It swam onto one of the islands just of the cliffs. I think it might be a first summer male.

 

Puffins and a Fulmar

Eider

 

We had no breakfast that morning due to getting up really early and then going almost straight away so we went to a Café which was right next to the car park. On our way to the Café we saw lots of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks. While we were in the café a report came through that the Tawny Pipit was in a field just south of Head Farm, so we quickly ate up and then headed of towards the farm. On the way we spotted a Moorhen in a gorse field, what an odd place to get a Moorhen. While we were walking down we asked a few people on the way to see if they had seen it and they all said "yes!" Further on we saw a few birders with scopes, cameras and binoculars and by the looks of things they were all looking in one particular spot. Once we had reached the spot we were almost straight away looking at the stunning Tawny Pipit! It showed very well for all of the time we were there and at one point it kept on coming closer and closer until it was only a few meters away! It was great watching it feed in the grass along with a Skylark. What a little cracker!

 

Tawny Pipit

Moorhen

 

Afterwards we decided to have a look in the Millennium Wood to see if we could find anything interesting. While we were in there we heard lots of Chiffchaffs and also we found some awesome nests. We found a Song Thrush nest, a Wrens nest and a Long tailed Tit nest. It was great watching the Long tailed Tit nest because we watched the adults come back and forth with nesting material to their nest. On the way back we saw a Yellowhammer, some Linnets and a Sparrow Hawk.