Pair of Turtle Doves in North Yorkshire – photo above © Richard Bennett While the photo to the right may show Sean in his ‘natural habitat’ Staithes isn’t, unfortunately, ideal habitat for turtle doves, but this hasn’t stopped us in our search for them. We have managed to track down some of the wonderful Turtle Dove beer…. The turtle dove is our smallest European dove, some of which fly great distances to reach Yorkshire from […]
Read More“We have teamed up with Yorkshire Coast Nature and Real Staithes on their seabird and whale watching trips off the coast in Staithes, North Yorkshire. These fantastic full-day trips are fully guided by experts and each is tailored to the best stretch of coastline for seabird and whale action on the day.“ Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Read more about our work with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust direct from them…
Read MoreAn amazing day at sea today (Sunday 22nd June) first up spotted a very large male Bottle Nosed Dolphin traveling at speed. We saw lots of Manx Shearwaters the most so far this year. Finally, a lone Storm Petrel, unfortunately it was being badly harassed by both Herring and Black Back Gulls, let’s hope it managed to evade them… you can read more about storm Petrels here.
Read MoreThe last couple of days have been spent watching kittiwakes collecting nesting materials from the foreshore here in Staithes. At one point the kittiwakes were even taking material from a herring gull’s nest, while the herring gull put up a fight the kittiwakes continued to pinch it’s nest. A quick count of nests on the end of Cowbar Nab show that the colony has nearly doubled from last year… 114 nests so far this year. […]
Read MoreIt’s not just us humans who get disorientated in this foggy weather we are experiencing here on the coastal edge of the North York Moors National Park, it’s the wild life too. Sean’s just phoned from sea, he’s got lots of goldcrests taking a rest on board his boat ‘All My Sons‘. One of them is actually in the cabin with him. Goldcrest, regulus regulus, are actually the smallest bird in the UK along with […]
Read MoreCommon Tern, sterna hirundo, these wonderful delicate birds have long tails, which has resulted in them been nicknamed ‘sea swallows’. You can see Common Terns throughout most of the UK from April until late August – September. They come to the UK to breed in colonies, which like most bird colonies are very noisy places, your best chance of seeing them is when they are feeding their young as they will fly great distances to […]
Read MoreSummer has finally settled into it’s normal pattern, thank goodness, not only can we see it in the grass verges along the road side and in the hedges, fields and woodlands but out at sea as well. Sean’s first phone call was to tell me about the Minke Whales Balaenoptera acutorostrata that he and today’s fishing party are watching. Minke Whales travel great distances from their breeding & calving grounds in the tropics to their […]
Read MoreGot to hope that this northerly gale is short lived, as it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the nesting sea birds. Let’s hope that not too many of them are hatched and that the parent birds are still sitting on the nests. Tonight’s forecast of heavy rain doesn’t look good for the puffins in their burrows either. Here’s hoping it blows over soon.
Read MoreSean spotted two Manx Shearwaters, Puffinus puffinus, at sea today (Thursday 16th May 2013) the first he’s seen this year. So it seemed appropriate to share another of John Pethullis’s wonderful photo of a Manx Shearater with you. Think you’ve got to agree it stunning, isn’t it..? Manx Shearwaters spend their winters on the coast of South America, while they breed here in the UK, though mainly on the west coast, as well as […]
Read MoreThe first Kittiwakes, rissa tridactyla, arrived in Staithes yesterday, 29th March a little later this year, they arrived on 20th March in 2011 and 16th March in 2012. Their normal habitat is usually well out to sea, they only come ashore to breed. Kittiwakes have a very distinctive voice, ‘kitti-wake’ or kala-week’ making the colonies very noisy places indeed. Kittiwakes breed in colonies on narrow rock ledges of steep cliffs, making the end of […]
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