Puffin and blowin'

Almost exactly four weeks ago, Nikki discovered the RSPB's Puffin and Gannet cruise. Today, we drove over to Bridlington to board the Yorkshire Belle and take the three-hour trip up the coast to Flamborough Head to enjoy some of the most spectacular views imaginable of the hugely successful sea-bird sanctuary.

The journey to Bridlington took around two-and-a-half hours and, being Bank Holiday weekend, parking was at a premium by the time we arrived. The cruise sets sail at 4pm, so we had a couple of hours to walk along the sea-front absorbing the holiday atmosphere. The weather was not as bad as we expected - during the week the more worrying forecasts of heavy rain and wind had abated in favour of low cloud and showers, but in the event we did enjoy one or two breaks in the cloud that made the views even more breathtaking as shafts of sunlight illuminated the limestone cliffs.

The further North we sailed, the closer we got to the nesting sites and the more numerous the birds became. Herring gulls, kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, gannets and fulmars were present in abundance, and we saw quite a few puffins (usually moving too fast to photograph unfortunately) and even the odd shag. Many of the birds don't make "proper" nests. They simply roost on the cliffs, each of them seeming to know exactly which few square centimetres of the precarious perch belongs to them amidst their thousands of neighbours.

The gannetry at Bempton Cliffs is one of the most successful bird sanctuaries in Europe and has grown its bird population over the last 20 years from a few thousand to over 80,000 pairs. When the boat stops by the cliffs it's hard to know where to point the camera first, as the floating razorbills take off away from the boat, flapping their short stubby wings and leaving a trail of splashes behind them, while white-faced puffins swoop low over the water at high speed.

Looking directly overhead the sky is peppered with soaring, gliding, diving birds, either leaving for an evening fishing trip or returning to roost for the night. In the end, with my battery flashing red after having taken almost 200 stills and several minutes of video footage, I let the camera dangle and just absorbed the atmosphere, the constant cry of the seabirds, the smell of the water and the gentle swaying of the boat.

All too soon it was time to set off on the return leg to port, which seemed to pass much more quickly than the outward leg. One of the most enjoyable days out I've ever experienced, and nicely rounded off with a fish supper at a coastal chippy.