Cruise 23 September 2012

Probably the last cruise I will wear sandals for -the sun shone but the wind was cold!!

The birds could ahve done with staying still a bit longer but a Bonxie kept us company, manx and sooty shearwaters came and went.... and more kittiwakes than we have had before - even a summer plumage puffin flew past!!

Cruise 15 Sept

The cruise got of to a good start meeting up with some old friends from my Antarctic adventure - would it live up to the Sooty Shearwaters and Albatross - help!!  No worries, I was assured they had enjoyed with some lifers....  the Yorkshire Belle and RSPB seabird cruises strike again!

Seriously it did get of to a good start with a Pomerine Skua skirting the beach as we left the harbour, a couple of Bonxies and an Arctic Skua kept attention focussed - plenty of puffins (?) - with a close Manx (sorry no pics-  camera jammed!) and finished with a Sooty Shearwater.  Plunging Gannets in the bay provided additional excitement...........

Skua season definitely here!!

todays cruise took place in glorious sunshine - sunscreen a must!! (where was this weather when the puffins were here??). It was hard work at times, gannets plunge diving all around as we started searching, arctic skua flew past, more guillemots - and a black one seen by a few lucky folk, searched and searched but had vanished............

 

 

and then at about 11.15 it got exciting, trying to capture the Scottish Fisheries plane that buzzed us...

 

 

when  a cry from the front of Skua had all lenses rapidly refocusing....

 

and the best views of Pomarine Skua I have had for a long long time - it stayed with the boat, obliged by circling so that everyone got superb views, sat, chased and finally disappeared towards the Headland and Bempton Cliffs....

 

 

 

finally a Bonxie...

 

 

and finished by watching the Flamborough Inshore Lifeboat bringing home a jetskier...

 

 

 

 

Skua season here!!

As promised the RSPB Skua/Shearwater cruise basked in glorious sunshine and calm seas...........  makes a change from Puffin cruises!!  Birds intermittent but good with a Bonxie fly past and Little Gulls a plenty.  A few winter plumage puffins, guillemots and razorbills.  (photos NOT taken of the Pomerine Skua - boo hoo!!)