Nature of Israel - Photo Blog: Trip to the UK - Bempton Cliffs and Flamborough Head

While in Leeds (UK) this summer (June) I visited the art gallery in Roundhay Park and admired a painting by a local artist, Sonia Taylor. The painting showed puffins flying off a cliff towards the sea at Bempton Cliffs on the East Coast of England near Bridlington and Flamborough Head. Sonia told me that this was a good time to visit, to see puffins and razorbills and various other seabirds.

Gannet

A few days later Miriam and I travelled to the RSPB Reserve at Bempton Cliffs. There we were overwhelmed by the thousands of seabirds flying over the sea, swimming in the sea and nesting and resting on the cliff sides. Several viewing platforms have been positioned on the cliff edge to give safe places to best see the birds.

Bempton Cliffs - Looking North towards Filey

What a treat we had. There were lots and lots of kittiwakes, gannets, razorbills, guillemots and herring gulls, but we couldn’t see the bird that we had really hoped to see, the puffin. It wasn’t just the sight of so many birds that was so impressive, but the cacophony of bird calls. We’ve become used to seeing and hearing the impressive sight and sound of tens of thousands of cranes in Israel in the Hula Valley, but this was our first experience of this number of birds in England.

Kittiwakes and herring gulls look very similar – they’re both primarily white birds with a grey rear and black tail-end. You can tell them apart as the kittiwake has a small yellow bill, a dark eye and short black legs, whereas the gull is a bigger bird and has pink legs and a red spot on its beak. But their calls are completely different, the kittiwake calls out ki-ti-waak, while the gull has a loud typical gull call.

Herring gull with red spot on beak

Kittiwake

Razorbills are black birds with white underparts (one has to be careful writing this word, as auto correction software often changes the word). And their bill, with its distinctive white muzzle-like markings is, unsurprisingly, razor sharp.

Razorbill

The kittiwakes, gulls and razorbills, as well as guillemots and gannets massed on the cliff face, squawking and squealing, seemingly oblivious to our presence. Most, if not all, of the birds were facing towards the cliff face – you would have thought they would want to enjoy the sea view or even look out for predators, but actually predators are few and far between on a cliff face, and I guess they feel safer facing the cliff than looking out to sea.

Gannets are beautiful birds and big too, which makes them a little easier to photograph. We watched as several pairs showed affection to each other, with outstretched necks craning upwards facing and touching each other. In a similar courtship ‘dance’ we watched gannets lock bills with each other, in such a way that, at first, we thought they were fighting.

Gannets "fencing" or "billing" - a friendship greeting

Gannet - courtship dance

Gannet in flight

The viewing platforms were busy and virtually full with serious birders, with serious binoculars and serious telephoto lenses on their cameras, for which, no doubt, they had paid serious money. Some of the lenses were at least as long as my arm, and made my 300mm zoom look insignificant. Amongst the hurly-burly of all these twitching birders, it was difficult to get my camera in a good position. But then one of the rangers, who all seemed to be real experts on every aspect of the life of these birds, called out “barn owl over the field”. All lenses changed direction and focused on the snowy-white barn owl, flying about 70 or 80 meters away. This made room for me to get a good position on the viewing platform. I shall remember what to shout out next time I can’t get a good place on a viewing platform.

On the way back to the visitor centre, I stopped next to some folk who had their bins trained on the cliff edge and they were excitedly pointing out to each other the location of a solitary puffin. it was quite some way off but I managed to get a pic of the wonderful little bird. I’d never seen a puffin before, aside from the Puffin story books I’d had as a child - but that’s another story. Apparently, the best time to see puffins is early in morning or late in the afternoon. During the day they’re out at work – fishing the seas. So next time, we’ll visit early in the morning; the early bird catches the early bird.

Puffin

While I was photographing the birds, Miriam spotted a hare ‘tacking’ up the side of a hill. At each change in direction it stopped and looked around, presumably trying to see where the tortoise was, or maybe it was looking for Archimedes!

At the visitor centre, manned by more real experts, we were advised that at nearby Flamborough Head, we’d be able to see seals. It took about 20 minutes to drive there and indeed we were able to look down from the cliff top to see scores of seals, on small sand islands basking in the sun and swimming in shallow waters by the edge of the beach.