Today we headed to Troup Head an RSPB reserve, a Seabird Colony, think Bempton Cliffs without the Health and Safety or 100s of idiots with cameras, here there were only two idiots with cameras, me and Margie😂!! We arrived in the empty carpark, once again the weather was doing us proud, blue skies and sunshine, Skylarks and Meadow Pipits were strutting their stuff, Yellowhammer song floated on the breeze and a Corn Bunting was singing, though I couldn't find the bugger!! We headed down to the Cliffs, a recently ploughed field had several birds on it, mainly Skylarks, but a couple of Yellowhammers brightened the day and a Brambling was a bit of a surprise! There was also a Brown Hare in the field!
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Hare |
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| Brambling and Yellowhammer |
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| Yellowhammer on Gorse! |
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| Gorse, some fabulous displays around the area at this time of year |
A loose group of Wheatears flew through (between 7 and 9 birds) which seemed to be heading East, unfortunately they didn't hang around, but I managed a few pics!
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| Wheatear on the ploughed field |
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| Yellowhammer |
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| Another showy Yellowhammer |
We reached the cliffs, an impressive place, lots of Gannets and Fulmars which seemed to make up the bulk of the birds on show, though we saw a few Kittiwakes as well. There were lots of Guillemots and Razorbills on the sea and as the SOC "where to watch" app suggested, we picked out a couple of Puffins bobbing about!!
There now follows a lot of pictures of Gannets and Fulmars!
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| Fulmar |
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| Another Hare |
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| Black eyes suggest a Bird Flu survivor |
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| Puffin |
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| Guillemot |
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| a 4th Calendar Year bird showing the "piano fingers" |
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| Quite a few Meadow Pipits in the grass, displaying and chasing each other about |
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| Think someone's got the hump |
At this point, I received a phone call from Margie, who had wandered off, to say she had just trod on an Owl!!!😲 Well very nearly, it had flushed up from the path next to her, the advantage of being first on site!! I hurried along, the Owl had settled on the next headland, but was soon flushed by a couple of Gulls!!
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| Short-eared Owl |
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| Flying away |
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| Into the distance |
I went back to the Gannets!!
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| Not in front of the neighbours! |
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| Feeding frenzy, missed the diving shots obvs |
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| Puffin flying in |
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| Fulmar |
Some of Margie's pics below, capturing the scale of it, though it's nowhere near all of it!
Visiting a Seabird colony in the Spring is one of my favourite things to do and I highly recommend it!! However I dragged myself away before the camera went into melt down and we looped back to the car, similar species on display as the walk to the cliffs
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| Skylark |
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| Wheatear flying in showing the "white arse" |
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| Pretty sure this the Corn Bunting that we could hear singing but it was miles away |
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| Another showy Yellowhammer |
So with the RSPB Loch of Strathbeg just 20 miles away and a Green-winged Teal being reported it seemed rude not to go! So we went!
Regular readers will know I have had much heartbreak with Green-winged Teals with multiple dips, but after successfully connecting with the Rye Harbour bird I am much more relaxed about them!! The bird was indeed present, but distant from the visitor center, we walked around to the hide which it appeared to be near, but by the time we get there it had relocated even further away!! We did see a Great White Egret and the Tree Sparrows and the Yellowhammers in the carpark were worth the journey on their own!
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| Swallow |
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| Eurasian Teal |
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| Common and Black-headed Gulls |
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| Grey Heron |
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| Green-winged Teal luckily there was a large arrow to point it out |
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| Mute Swan |
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| Great White Egret |
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| Tree Sparrow |
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| Goldfinch |
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| Yellowhammer |
We attempted to get to the beach from the road past the Loch itself, but huge potholes and deep puddles meant I bottled it and we gave up halfway down! Did see a Corn Bunting on a dung heap which was handy!
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| Corn Bunting on Dung! |
Time was getting on so we decided to head back to base, the bungalow we were renting was called Bowfiddle for reasons I didn't quite understand, named after Bowfiddle Rock, by coincidence we passed this on the journey back, so on the spur of the moment we decided to take a look, which turned out to be a good decision as we saw our first Dolphins of the trip!!
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