Saturday 6 November 2010

Bempton - Chatting on the cliffs

An autumn visit to Bempton revealed a far different place than in the summer. The cliffs are now more or less deserted as the breeding seabirds have departed.

The tide was in and the relaxing sound of waves against the cliffs replaced the summer sounds of nesting birds.




It is hard now to imagine all these nests occupied.

We arrived at lunchtime and were disappointed that although promised on the RSPB website the ECO catering van was absent. Never mind we drove the few miles to the Redcliffe Farm shop and enjoyed a fine lunch.

Returning to Bempton we walked along the cliff tops as the sun went down. There were a few Stonechats about and their colours suited the warm light.

There is more to Bempton than the cliffs and the area behind is open countryside. Rather than swap to a wider lens on my DSLR  for a landscape shot I used my new Nikon Coolpix P7000. Hopefully it will prove to be good enough to complement my DSLR and keep my camera bag lighter! Today however there was little opportunity to use it but my impressions so far are good and for a compact camera with a smaller sensor than a DSLR noise control has been better than expected.


As the land to the south is lower than the cliffs there are views for miles. Beyond the land can be seen the sweeping Holderness coastline.

Time was against us and soon the light started to fade. It was the time when predators start to hunt and this Barn owl flew across the fields.


Back at the car park with the light nearly gone I saw this scene.  I was tempted to take a photo as I thought it captured the atmosphere of the time of day.