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Surprise Dipper and a Peppery Finish!
Sun 25th Nov, 2012
Yorkshire Coast Nature tours are often full of surprise encounters with wildlife. Our Divers and Wildfowl tour on the 17th November started with wonderful close up views of a Dipper feeding underwater at Scalby Mills. Hundreds of Wigeon provided a beautiful spectacle, whistling below us amongst the gulls and waders. The Peregrine Falcons at Scarborough performed magnificently whilst offshore Red-throated Divers and Harbour Porpoise swam on the tranquil sea.
Filey Brigg is a good place to get to grips with wildfowl on the sea. Long-tailed Duck, Eider and Common Scoter were all seen well. Learning from each other in a group environment is a highly rewarding experience and we benefited from having fantastic seashore knowledge on this tour! Several species of seaweed were tasted including everyone’s favourite Pepper Dulse! At the end of the day we had recorded 61 species of birds, 4 mammals and an unexpected 18 species of seaweed! We have included some great pictures taken by the group and now let’s hear their stories…
Individual Reviews from the day:
I had a really great day. I'm a beginner with bird identification and learnt a lot from the day. Rich and Steve are both excellent tutors with great knowledge, an easy teaching style and bags of enthusiasm. I was impressed with the number of birds we got to see and liked the fact that we went to where the birds were thanks to friends of Rich and Steve calling in with sightings from around the coast. We also got to see harbour porpoise twice! Two telescopes were used so if you don’t have the best binoculars then you still get great views of the birds. I'll be looking out for other courses next year.
Jo Barker
I had a brilliant day – not only did we see an impressive number of bird species; this was supplemented by both yours and Steve’s expert knowledge. My favourite moment was being ‘dive bombed’ by med gulls and the harbour porpoise that appeared in the scope when I was spotting red throated diver.
Jayne Walker
I was really delighted with the tour. The planning and preparation had clearly been done well, and we moved down the coast as the tides became suitable for each location. The weather improved as we went along, and all this had been taken into account. The range of species seen was incredible, including ducks, divers, raptors, cetaceans and seabirds, and the potential for both birdwatching and photography was fully exploited by two very knowledgeable, flexible and expert guides. It just showed what potential there is for a good day’s wildlife watching on the Yorkshire coast in autumn/winter!
It’s great to be working with such a professional team.