Another Swift trip

Another week another Swift, Sunday found me and Andy heading East to Bempton Cliffs where an Alpine Swift was present for its third day, it was quite a trek to the trig point which was actually more Buckton really, and brief views were had en route as it shot past along the top of the cliff but once at the point, which was its favoured area we were rewarded with absolutely spectacular and prolonged views for 45mins or more although photographing it was a challenge in the very windy conditions, we took in the seabirds on the way back, Gannet numbers are incredible now but generally I’ve seen the cliff faces more densely packed. After lunch we headed off to Wykeham, I dropped Andy off at the Raptor viewpoint then headed off to the Nursery fields with the intention of photographing Turtle Doves but typically there were none showing, I gave it a while then joined Andy but the Raptor watching wasn’t much better, maybe it was just too windy, he'd had juv Goshawk before I arrived but the next couple of hours only produced two or three common Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk and a Peregrine, we had another look at the Nursery fields as we left and managed to find one Turtle Dove although that soon departed there was also several small flocks of Crossbills flying around.

young Tree Sparrows in the car park

Whitethroat at Wykeham