David, Roger, Malcolm and I
set off for a visit to Bempton Cliffs and were planning to come back via
Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire. It
was a little misty when we left Roger’s but it gradually cleared and the weather
was looking pretty good as we approached Driffield but as we approached the
coast the mist returned and on arrival at Bempton it was quite foggy with a
fresh northerly wind and feeling a little cold.
We made our way down to the
cliff top and fortunately we could see the birds on the cliffs but we couldn’t
see too far out to sea. We had soon seen
Gannet, Guillemot, Razorbill and Puffin, which were the hoped for target birds
but the weather was limiting general birding and made photography difficult but
I was able to get a few shots of the Gannets.
Another target was Shag, which is never easy at Bempton and with there
being no sign of the weather improving we set of for Flamborough.
Immature Gannet
Immature Gannet
Immature Gannet
Gannets
Adult Gannet
Adult Gannet
Immature Gannet
Kittiwake
The weather was showing some
signs of improvement as we drove through Flamborough and wasn’t too bad as we
walked down to South Landing to view the sea.
The tide was well out but at least we could now see a reasonable
distance and the fog continued to clear whilst we were on site. We had heard Willow Warbler, Blackcap, Garden
Warbler and Whitethroat as we walked down the road but hadn’t managed to see
any of them.
As we scanned the sea we had
Gannet, Kittiwake and a few auks, which appeared to be mainly Guillemots,
although we did have a couple of Razorbills on the sea. Roger then said he thought he had a Shag but
as I got on the bird it dived but we picked it up again and were able to
confirm that it was a Shag. There were a
couple of Herring Gulls on the shore and about a dozen Common Gulls nearby on
the sea and a single Sandwich Tern flew by.
As we walked back up the hill we had a Willow Warbler briefly and some
nice views of a distant Garden Warbler.
After some lunch we set off
south to Chambers Farm Wood, optimistic with the improving weather that we
would see or two target species. There
was bright sunshine almost until we were a few miles from the wood, when it
became a little more overcast, damping our enthusiasm a little.
When we arrived on site the
sun was making an attempt to break through and when it did it turned quite
warm. There were some other people in
the car park, who gave us instructions in where to look for Marsh Fritillary
and said that they had jammed in on a Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth earlier.
We had a couple of Speckled
Woods as we walked to the meadow and we weren’t in the meadow long before we
were watching a couple of Marsh
Fritillaries. We continued to work two
meadows and must have seen at least six Fritillaries. We also found a Painted Lady, a Common Blue
and several Dingy Skippers but there was no sign of our second target, the
hawk-moth.
Marsh Fritillary
Marsh Fritillary
Painted Lady
Malcolm, Roger and I walked
back along the road and on reaching the car park David was showing some
interest in something and he beckoned us over.
When we got alongside we found out that someone had put him on to a
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth, which was still feeding on the flowers near the
entrance to the garden. It remained for
quite some time and I managed to get a few shots of it before it flew off into
the garden.
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth
After a disappointing start at
Bempton with the weather we had finished on a high at Chambers Farm Wood with three
lifers, Marsh Fritillary, Broad-bordered Bee Hawk-moth and a micro Epibema
scutulana we had found whilst looking for the fritillary.
Epibema scutulana
Epibema scutulana
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