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Seabird & Whale Boat Trips Mid - End of August 2026
Sun 6th Sep, 2026
August was a great month for Minke Whale sightings as numbers increased daily to an impressive monthly maximum of 30 whales on the 17th.
Minke Whale - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 29 August 2026 © Richard Baines
Sightings then declined with to up to six per day before increasing again to another great day on the 29th August when we found 12 individuals. On a very calm sea we were surrounded by whales on this special day.
Minke Whale - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 29 August 2026 © Richard Baines
Minke Whale - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 29 August 2026 © Richard Baines
The most significant whale sighting of the month proved to be a photograph taken by Bethan Clyne of a whale we saw breach on the 31st August. We quickly inspected the dorsal fin photo and Bethan identified it from our catalogue as Bitsa last photographed on the Yorkshire Coast on the 26th August 2013! So, we now know Bitsa is a minimum of 13 years old.
Minke Whale 'Bitsa' - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 31 August 2026 © Bethan Clyne
Harbour Porpoise were again scarce with sightings of small groups on only two dates late in the month.
Our Seabird and Whale boat trips this year have had more encounters with dolphins than in any of our previous years. Not a single week has gone by without any sightings which has been really exciting.
We have kept a close eye on Bottlenose Dolphin behaviour during every trip. Staying a safe distance often over 250m away is very important to reduce any possible disturbance. If the dolphins don’t approach us, we don’t approach them, a policy which we have kept since we started running the trips many years ago. We were therefore very pleased to receive this observation from a dolphin surveyor on the shore:
'A group of bottlenose dolphins were slowly swimming northwards from my survey location. Sean and Richard were out with a group and started to head shoreward. The dolphins had other ideas, they turned sharp right and went to meet them! It must have been a great 20 minutes or so for the clients as they followed the dolphins north past Staithes, out of sight to me around the Cowbar headland, re-emerging a quarter hour later, still together, before the dolphins carried on northwards. It was so good to see respectful boat handling being so rewarded!
Rod Grant. August 2026
On the 17th August we saw our first Red-throated Diver of the autumn flying high south, shortly afterwards four Manx Shearwaters flew south low over the sea. On the same date we enjoyed hundreds of Black-legged kittiwake juveniles on the sea close inshore. With nesting colonies at Kettleness, Cowbar and above Staithes harbour mid-August is a great time to watch flocks of kittiwakes leaving the cliffs. By the end of August most had left and we only saw small numbers on each trip later in the month.
Northern Fulmar - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 17 August 2026 © Richard Baines
August this year was notable for really good numbers of Northern Fulmars. On the 24th we enjoyed over 100 behind the boat feeding on the chum I was providing. This was the monthly peak but the calm sea on the 17th was an amazing opportunity for fulmar photography and I managed to grab a photo of a Northern Fulmar and its wing shearing through the water.
Balearic Shearwater - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 25 August 2026 © Richard Baines
On the 25th out of the blue and close inshore a dark phase Balearic Shearwater flew past the boat. With only 1,800–2,500 pairs in the world, all in the Mediterranean this was a really good sighting keeping up our annual tally of one or two birds per year on our trips.
Caspian Gull (juvenile) - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 25 August 2026 © Richard Baines
Yellow-legged Gull (juvenile) - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 28 August 2026 © Richard Baines
On the same date a very obliging juvenile Caspian Gull spent a long time following our boat hoping for food which allowed everyone to get great views of this attractive gull. On the 28th we found another Caspian Gull and a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull providing a rare opportunity to compare both species. Despite the season continuing to be poor for Manx Shearwaters it was great for regular views of Sooty Shearwaters with small numbers on almost every trip. Throughout August we ended up seeing more Sooty Shearwaters than Manx! The best date for close up views was undoubtedly the 31st when we found a small group of five birds with two on the sea providing wonderful opportunities for photography.
Sooty Shearwater - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 28 August 2026 © Richard Baines
Guests often ask which is better the five hour or our three-hour trips? Logically the more time we spend out at sea the more we will see. However sometimes the three-hour trips really score which was the case on the 29th August. Late in the afternoon we encountered a small passage of Little Gulls with adults and juveniles on the move. Close inshore we found a group of four juveniles alongside a Black Tern in the same flock. With Common Tern, Arctic Tern and two Black-legged Kittiwakes in the same small group this was a great encounter. The same trip was also great for Arctic Skuas with 12 counted over the three hours.
- Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 29 August 2026 © Richard Baines
One of the strangest and rarest sightings of the month occurred on the 28th August when I noticed a pale looking auk on the sea. Closer inspection revealed a Leucistic Razorbill! The first one any of us on the boat had ever seen.
Razorbill (left) and Leucistic Razorbill (right) - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 28 August 2026 © Richard Baines
We have enjoyed great views of Atlantic Grey Seals over many years on our boat trips with more sightings every year out at sea. At the same time, we have noticed small but increasing numbers on the rocks below Kettle Ness cliff. This August the seal numbers really took off to the point where we were counting hundreds of seals! This must indicate a new colony developing which is great news.
Atlantic Grey Seals at Kettle Ness - Yorkshire Coast Nature Seabird & Whale trip 31 August 2026 © Richard Baines
We have a small number of places left on our Seabird and Whale Trips 2026 CLICK HERE
Richard Baines
Director and Wildlife Guide
Yorkshire Coast Nature