We thought we'd arrived in the Village of the Damned as Jellyhead's car nosed into the Dog and Duck Square in the middle of Flamborough as mist swirled around the low terraced cottages and a bell tolled in the dark night from an invisible church tower.
Okay, I made the bit up about the bells up, but the fact you couldn't get a phone signal anywhere (Flamborough is mobile phone unfriendly, unless you're on Orange) did nothing to dispel the feeling we'd arrived in Royston Vasey instead of seawatching central.
With Jellyhead, Bazzo and Tropical Thomason, I'd travelled over to the east coast for the weekend, hoping to capitalise on a north easterly weather system, and things quickly began to look up once we'd got ensconsed in the Royal Dog and Duck and began to plan the weekend.
Flamborough turned out to be one of the most welcoming villages I've ever visited _ pubs full of locals intent on having as much fun as the hours of darkness allow and great food.
Not a sniff of Edward and Tubbs anywhere.
Socialising was only polite, but I think we all regretted it the next day as we edged down the cliff beneath the lighthouse for a dawn seawatch.
Sooty (250+) shearwaters, Manxies (50+), and a constant stream of gannets, kittiwakes and fulmars were interspersed by occasional skuas powering through.
I lurvvve skuas _ they present identification challenges greater than most other groups of birds, and when they're moving a mile offshore in the North Sea it can get VERY complicated VERY fast.
Despite this, the "Marshside Irregulars" were up to the task, and we managed to pin down two long tailed skuas, amongst the commoner arctics.
Big bruising bonxies posed no problem, but long tailed skua i.d. can get highly subjective, especially at long range.
Does the bird show too much white in the wing?
Has it got a deep chest?
What shape are the stumps of tail feathers _ are they pointed or blunt?
Are the wings narrow enough?
Do the wings show contrast?
Does the bird have a meandering flight, rising up to stall occasionally, or does it plug along in a straight line like an arctic?
All questions that needed to be answered as the birds moved south offshore, while at the same time concentrating on not falling off Flamborough's cliffs and into the drink below us.
Climbing off the cliffs a few hours later, we headed down to South Landing, where the first fieldfares of the autumn were coming in off the sea, and one of the tamest red backed shrikes I've ever seen chased craneflies, bees and wasps constantly _ is six craneflies in a minute a record?
I think I could only manage the one.
Yellow browed warbler called from the dense foliage of the ravine and bullfinch, goldcrest and titmice were in the canopy.
Meadow pipits moved through en masse with smaller numbers of yellow wagtails, wheatears and swallows.
It was a good enough daylist to justify some more "socialising" in the village that night, so after a quick shower (Ivy Cottage b&b was the business) we hit the town.
Things got a bit hazy after that, and the next thing I knew we were all on the cliffs again the next morning.
Trouble was the wind had dropped so seabird passage was minimal, only a few shears and a bonxie came by before brekkers.
When becalmed, change the location _ so we barrelled down the coast to Spurn to grill an obliging barred warbler in the Warren before failing to get to grips with icterine warbler and little bunting in the impenetrable maze of buckthorn and elderberry that is the Point proper.
Not a bad weekend and back to burn all my clothes then sleep by teatime on Sunday.
Back home the ring billed gull is still at Crosby marina, where there was another black tern, and shedloads of geese are now pouring in for the winter.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »