A Spot of Birdwatching - Frustrated by Fog

Its been awhile since my last post, and for good reason... I have been on holiday! We spent the last few days up near the Lake District. It is a beautiful location, and we walked miles and miles and took hundreds of photos. We arrived back home earlier today, and after sorting out clothes to be washed and putting all the stuff away (there really was a lot of stuff considering we were only away for 3 days), I have run out of time to start sifting through photos.

So instead, I am going to write about a day trip we took last week up to Bempton Cliffs, an RSPB Reserve located on the Yorkshire Coast.

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The reserve is located right on the cliff edge, and is a great place to watch seabirds nesting on the side of the cliffs. There are lots of different species ranging from Gulls to Razorbills, and Guillemots to Gannets.

I had been looking forward to this day out for a few weeks now, and with the covid restrictions easing we were able to go with my parents which was flippin lovely if I'm honest. I had been checking the weather forecast for a few days, and it looked to be nice and bright and sunny.

Perfect!...

Or it should have been at least.

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We arrived at 9AM sharp to be greeted with a wall of fog.

This wasn't just a bit misty, it was very foggy indeed. Quickly checking the weather app on my phone confirmed a bit of mist which was predicted to lift around lunchtime.

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All we could do was wait and cross our fingers for conditions to improve. The fog might create nice atmposperic landscape pictures, but for clear shots of birds... its not ideal.

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The pretty red flowers belong to Red Campion - Silene dioica

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Here was one of the birds we saw, a Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus)

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Another foggy shot. Here the fog has lifted slightly, showing a selection of Gulls nesting on the side of the cliff. It would be a fantastic photo oportunity if there was no fog in the way.

In the image below there are some Gannets apparently...

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This image shows the problem. Fog (and mist) is caused by water droplets in the air. It is this that creates these fuzzy washed-out images. And there is nothing I can do solve the problem. If its really bright sunshine I can adjust my settings on my camera. If it is dull and cloudy, again I can change the settings, and even use a tripod to help in low light.

Here in the midst of fog, there is nothing I can do, except wait.

And wait some more.

Eventually by 2pm (five hours after we had arrived), the fog started to lift in places. Depending on where we stood and the direction we looked, I was able to get some better pictures:

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Razorbill

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The Gull here is called a Kittiwake

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Some more Razorbills, a nesting pair perhaps?

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A lone solitary Puffin, with those bright colours on its bill it is a iconic and easily recognised species. This was the only individual I saw on this day, and the Weather Gods decided I wasn't to get a decent picture of this one

Finally at the far end of the reserve, I was able to get a better picture of the Gannets. They are one of the largest species of seabird we have here in the UK, and they were an impressive sight in flight (when I could see them in between the fog patches!)

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I'm pretty sure this was a nesting pair, they spent nearly 20 minutes matching each others head movements as part of bonding or courtship rituals. Lovely to see, even if they were a bit far away.

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Here is one of the Gannets inflight, showing off an impressive wingspan. Even with a bit of editing, you can see a bit of haziness in the picture due to the effect of the fog.

At about 3:30pm, the fog started to roll in from the sea and become thicker again, so we took the hint and went home.

In conclusion, Bempton Cliffs is a fantastic reserve, and there was a lot of cool stuff going on, but if you plan on going then I recommend picking a day with no fog!

Now with that done I can move on to tackle the 800+ images I took while on holiday, and hopefully I'll be able to share some of those with you in a few days

All names confirmed and checked via the RSPB Website

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Thank you for reading, I hope you found it interesting.

If you have any thoughts or opinions on this article then I'd love to see your comments.
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All Photos taken by @dannewton unless otherwise stated.
Check out my website for more of my work.

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