AT LAST I MANAGED TO SEE AN ALBATROSS IN THE UK! The words ‘at last’ are well-justified in this case. My first miss was a week on Unst on Shetland in 1990, just about as far away from home as I could get in the UK at the time, when I was in Hertfordshire. This coincided with ‘Albert Dross’, as it was cruelly known (one of my pet hates is calling birds, and walruses for that matter, daft names), taking a week off from his ledge on the cliff face. After running the gauntlett of the bonxie colony at Hermaness, I recall lying on the ground and peering over the edge of the immense cliff face (double the height of Bempton!) to where the albatross usually sat on the top of a prominent buttress. It wasn’t there. The disappointment was crushing even though I did see some other nice things in Shetland but to add insult to injury as soon as I got home, the Pallas’s Sandgrouse turned up near where I had been staying and I wasn’t able to go back for it. The urge to see an albatross in the UK waned after I saw thousands of them in New Zealand and more recently the South Atlantic, where we even cruised past Steeple Jason in the Falkland Islands, home to the world’s largest Black-browed Albatross colony (tens of thousands filled the sky like a swarm of insects). However, albatrosses are special and the thought of seeing one in the North Atlantic/Western Palearctic/UK remained appealing. Apparently not appealing enough for me to rush down to the viewpoints from the Eastern Crowned Warbler at Bempton in 2016, I didn’t want to ‘go off and do something else badly’ until I had managed a decent photo of the warbler, so I ignored it until had gone. It has just taken 5 years to prove that was the right decision! In the meantime I was late to the Bempton albatross party in 2020 and missed it again, even sleeping in the car and trying again the following day to no avail.
Back to 2021 and the clifftop viewpoints on the RSPB’s Bempton reserve. I arrived in late morning after enduring commuter traffic, lorries, roadworks and at least one million tractors on the cross-country journey from East Lancs, to meet Johnny Mac coming away from the morning sighting. Not the first time he’s turned up by chance just when I needed some help. Staple Newk (the most easterly viewpoint, pronounced ‘Stapple Nuck’ it means ‘pillar corner’) was where I should head to and happily the albatross was still sat on the sea to the east of there, just about visible in binos (no details) and only a little better through a scope (orange bill, but the first bird I was shown was a black-backed young gannet, just to add a little more stress!). Not long afterwards the albatross flew in and proceeded to give repeated awesome views as it circled the gannetry on the arch below the viewing platform, before finally landing out of sight around the corner of the cliff. Phew, that was something! I waited for another 8 hours for it to return, passing the time with my old pal Duncan, who had missed in by 10 minutes the week before, but when it did return it only made a few circuits before landing out of sight of both the Staple and even Roll-up viewpoints, its massive wings popping up from behind some rocks the only clue. The seabird colonies of Bempton is one of the top birding experiences in the UK and I said this before, isn’t it ironic that so many of us are obsessed with seeing something that should not be there instead of just enjoying the spectacle of the regular birds? It’s nice to have your cake and eat it though! The walk to the cliff top through uncut hay meadows full of Tree Sparrows, linnets, Corn and Reed Buntings, Meadow Pipits and skylarks addded to the enjoyment of a special day. I should make a note for next July that the excellent kebab shop in Flamborough stays open late but only takes cash!
