My Birdwatcher's Guide: Our trip to Bempton Cliffs

We set off on Saturday morning from Clive's House and on the way, we stopped in Huntingdon to meet the other member travelling up with us Sharon. We had the Sat Nav on the journey North was quite pleasant. We stopped near Doncaster for a drink and some Lunch and then travelled up to our Hotel for the next few nights.

The Hotel was called Cober Hill, it was in a small village just north of Scarborough called Cloughton, we booked in, had a cup of tea and then thought we would have a walk to the Sea.

The grounds of the Hotel were very nice, lots of Wisteria and winding pathways leading to play areas, a putting green and even a tennis court. It was quite a pleasant walk. We stopped and talked to a man who had a small dog as he was entering his driveway. His house was lovely and the frontage was old stone. I have no idea how old the building was but it was quite stunning.

The view of the Beach from the end of the road was quite impressive, we then set off back to the Hotel to relax and discuss our plans for dining out in the evening.

After consulting with the Hotel Staff and our other two friends we decided to have a meal at a pub about five minutes away from our Hotel, called The Blacksmith Arms, we booked a table for 8.30pm.

We arrived at the Pub about 8.20 and our two friends Mark and Sandra, arrived shortly afterwards. We ordered some drinks and then sat down at our table and decided on what we wanted to eat.

It was a really nice meal and very comfy and warm pub. I recommend it if your in the area.

After a good nights sleep, we set off downstairs at about 8.20am for our Buffet Breakfast before we set off for Bempton Cliffs to see the Puffins and the other birds. It was a nice breakfast.

We arrived at Bempton about 10.30am, parked, set up our cameras and put our walking boots on and then set off down the path to right to the cliffs edge to see the Puffins and Gannets.

At the first platform, we saw loads of Gannets floating around in the thermals in front of us and a single Puffin sitting on the edge on a rock with a Razorbill close by watching it. They are really lovely looking birds and have red eyes and big orange webbed feet, something we were told to look out for to identify them from the Razorbills and Gannets.

We all took some great pictures on that first platform and then set off to explore the other platforms. While we did we could see countless number of birds flying around, floating and even a huge number of Puffins bobbing around on the waves in the sea below us.

The Gannets amazed me, they would land on a jut of rock a few centimetres wide and sit and watch other birds. There was also an awful lot of Kittiwakes, Guillemots, Little Tern and Razorbills about, which were also sitting on the cliff edge.

It was the shear number of birds flying around that impressed me, they were absolutely everywhere and never collided at all. I loved the Gannets the most, you can tell they are Gannets because they have a slightly yellow head and their wing tips are black and forked slightly backwards but they fly majestically, hover and then zoom into the side of the cliffs but somehow manage to stop and land all in the same movement, it is so brilliant to watch.

After walking to the other platforms we decided to go back to the Visitor Centre and sit down and have a cup of tea. We then discussed what we would do in the afternoon.

We set off to the right of the Visitor Centre which was where the majority of the Gannet nests were on the Cliff side, all you could see was a wall of white on some of the rocks jutting out to sea, it was not until they moved that you reallised it was birds and indeed not rock.

After a couple of hours we decided to go back to our Hotel and change and then meet up and go to the Scarborough sea front and have a Fish & Chips Supper.

We met at about 7.30pm and set off down the Hill to the sea front, it was quite a nice evening and there were lots of people about on the beach and on the streets. When we go down to the front we saw a couple of Fish & Chip restaurants but were persuaded by one of colleagues that the second one PAN FISH was the better option. We sat down ordered our food and out came the Biggest piece of Haddock I have seen for a long while, I must say though that it was delicious.

We then set off back to our Hotel and chilled out for a little while and had a good nights sleep.

I must say that Yorkshire is a beautiful county and if you like birdwatching then go to Bempton Cliffs and see the Puffins, Gannets and all the other birds because it really is worth a visit.