Close to one year after the magficant Black-browed Albatross graced RSPB Bempton Cliffs I was heading back on the evening of 28th June. I spend all day debating whether to go or not. With Squire isolating to the virus, Mark working and the Captain purring with a sighting in Norfolk it was going to have to be a solo drive. I remember the previous year it did a morning of flying then never returned so I was dubious. Anyway the day passed without making a decision, finally I decided I'd go after my morning meeting and deal with the fate either way. I certainly wasn't going to see this species sat on my sofa.
The species breed in three strongholds being Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and Chile, so perhaps Yorkshire wasn't that far. The birds can live upto 70 years which is quite amazing and have wingspan upto 240cm.
The drive was traffic free both ways but the reports were less regular, just kept saying sat in cliffs. Surely not for 4 hours. Would he wait ! Yes he would, in fact the bird never moved other than an odd flap of the wings and a twist of the head as it watched the Gannets fly over. Sadly I wasn't treated to the flight views birders had seen the previous day. After around 90 mins and a mouch around I decided to head home which proved to be a good decision as the bird did not take flight for another three hours before landing on sea before flying off.
I did feel for those who tried to twitch the bird the day after I saw it and was disappointed. There is nothing more frustating then booking time off from work and driving for a zero return. Seeing a few other birds on the day never really feels like compensation.
Many thanks to Owen Beaumont who kindly let me us a couple of his images for the blog. Pleas drop him a follow on Twitter & Instagram.
With the first half the year coming to an end, it's been pretty good to date for rare birds even given the lockdown period when we were all stuck on our local patches. To record nine new species in these six months has been really pleasing.
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