karen's country calendar

 After waiting a few weeks for a free day and suitable weather, on Monday, we made the 3 1/2 hour  trip to Yorkshire  arriving at Bempton Cliffs at 9.30 where there was plenty of parking space  due to there not being any species of special interest about such as the albatross or red shrike!  The weather was cloudy with a very cold northerly wind so we were glad we had brought coats and needed hoods up too!  The forecast was for sunny skies later though.  All the usual seabirds were nesting on the cliffs including puffins, guillemots and razorbills and you could soon smell and see the gannet colonies!  Lots of flying to and from the nests though no chicks were seen that day.  We were told by a keen photogapher that the northerly wind was ideal for the birds to give them a extra uplift (and I guess to provide better photo opportunities as they often hung in the air on the wind gusts before landing)  No butterflies in evidence due to the weather which we do often see on the meadow areas.