Wykeham Forest & Bempton Cliffs

This month’s club trip on 8th June started with a morning at Wykeham Forest. There were sixteen in the group and, having discussed our surprise at how many trees had been felled by the raptor viewpoint car park, we started by walking along the road towards the nurseries. There were several Skylarks singing, Mistle and Song Thrushes were seen feeding on the fields. A Garden Warbler was hidden in a bush and Goldcrests, Coal and Marsh Tits were in some of the conifers. A Willow Warbler was feeding young and Swifts and hirundines actively fed over the fields. We returned to the viewpoint to start searching for raptors about 10.30. Very soon after we got there, a Crossbill flew in and perched up briefly and a Red Kite was high up above us. Not long later, a raptor approached the hillside fairly closely and to our delight it was an Osprey, not a bird we had been targeting but very welcome. Several Common Buzzards showed at different distances from time to time over the next couple of hours. Sadly, no Honey Buzzards were seen and the forecasted rain started around 1pm, just after we had our lunch while we watched the skies. There were around 35 species seen or heard here.

Nine of the party decided to continue on to the coast and visited Bempton Cliffs, as planned, where it was also damp at times. However, we had good views of all the usual species, including many Puffins with sandeels and several of the Gannets had young, before we called it a day and returned to York.

Rob and Jane Chapman