We went off to Bridlington where the family used to go to church.  Pretty boring I thought in those days.  Now I didn’t think that at all, really interesting church – the only one with gargoyles of Prince Charles and Camilla.  Yup, really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can only imagine the excitement I felt.

Bempton Cliffs is nearby – some of the highest cliffs in England at 100m, running for 10km and bubbling with boids.  The others wanted to see same, so I tagged along.  I used to go there with my Dad when I was a kid.  It was much easier to fall off and kill yourself in those days,but now there are fences all along the edge.  Progress of a sort. 

So I did some boidwatching. Here’s what I saw:

These are very rare – Fat Twins, got a big tick in my little book, that’s for sure.

This one’s also quite rare – a solitary female. Tick.

A pink-breasted male, hunting. Tock.  Time passed – the whole thing took about 2hrs……

A solitary male, noodling.

A male preening

Some can be quite inquisitive if disturbed.

Mostly however they exhibit strong flocking behaviour.

Here’s my little flock.

Flocks clustering at the feeding grounds

I was able to observe everything without leaving my cup of tea at the cafe.  Heaven knows why the others spent so long outside.

What I didn’t tell them was that before I came along my Dad used to abseil down these cliffs with his mates and steal the eggs.

Ahem….