Off to Bempton in the morning

We're off the the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve in the morning, and when I say morning I mean it is a 4am start.  Why such an ungodly hour to set off?   Well it takes nearly two hour to get there so we should arrive around about 6am.  The reserve at this time is deserted and you get the pick of the photographic locations.  As the day wears on then you get a lot more people there and you don't have the freedom to roam that you have earlier in the day.   Also the light starts to become too harsh, it is, after all nearly May and so the sun is getting quite high in the sky.

Gannet

So what do we hope to see in the morning.  Well there will be an ever increasing Gannet colony and if we are really lucky we should see the first Puffins of the season. 

Bempton Cliffs

The Bempton reserve is a strange place.   It is about a mile from the village and when you arrive all you can see are fields and the sea, there is no indication of a bird colony at all.   However, as you walk to the sea you start to become aware of noise of the birds, yet very little sign of them. Then wham you are on top of some of the tallest chalk cliffs in the country and below you are all the birds stacked high up the cliff face.  This stretches for miles along the Yorkshire coast and is a fantastic spectacle in its self.   Lets just hope the weather holds.

Twitching and Photography

Lapland Bunting

Lapland Bunting Twitch

This is not an attack on twitching or bird watching but rather to question what is the purpose of photography and what makes a good photograph.   Anyway to set the scene:  a glorious sunny autumn morning on the north Norfolk coast near to the Titchwell RSPB reserve; sea, beach and sky full of different birds and you come across a group of bird watchers and photographers pointing their cameras at a small patch of beach next to the dunes.   Their backs turned to the beauty all around.  Instead they were concentrating on this small patch of beach because there was a rare bird sitting there.   Welcome to the Lapland Bunting twitch.

The bird itself is nothing special ( I mentioned this to one of the volunteers at the reserve and was put in my place as to how beautiful/attractive/worthwhile it was to see the bird.  I don't think he appreciated my comments!)   This started me to consider why people take photographs and what they consider worthwhile and beautiful.  This is the subject of many books and thesis and I don't think this blog would be able even scratch the surface but it did seem strange to me that you would turn your back on the beautiful seascapes to look at some bird that is stranded a long way from home and most likely never to get back there.   I guess beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

For the record I too went over to see the bird and captured the earth shattering image at the start of this blog.   Also for full disclosure I am a proud member of the RSPB and Wild Fowl and Wetland trust.   I love taking photographs of birds - in fact the reason for me being on that beach was in part to do just that. Its just I like to take images of birds doing something interesting rather than just because it is a rare bird.   I  am sure I am missing the point somewhere along the line.  

Geese at Dawn - Snettisham

Just to give you an idea of the number of geese that flew over at dawn.

Snettisham 17th October 2008

What a wonderful place Snettisham is.   Well, the reserve is a bit of a dump but the birds more than make up for this.   We got there as dawn broke and the sky was a beautiful orange.   The sky was covered with geese leaving their roosts and making their way to nearby fields to feed.   No picture can ever do this justice but I tried anyway.

The RSPB have finally made an effort to make the mile walk from the car park to the reserve passable.  This is important as the average bird watcher/photographer carries a huge amount of kit and walking along a rough path doesn't make things easy.

Once at the reserve there is not a great deal to see.   It is made up of two elements.   Two fresh water lagoons - these were old gravel quarries - and miles of mudflats that are covered by the Wash at High Tide.   At very high spring tides the mudflats disappear under 7+ metres of water.  This means the waders that feed on the mudflats have nowhere to go and so leave the sea and settle by the lagoons.   The number of waders is countless and so they arrive in dense clouds of swirling bobbing bodies.  How they avoid crashing into one another is unknown but they do.   The sight of these cloud moving is stunning and the reason to come the reserve.

Around about an hour after high tide something makes the waders take off and return to the mudflats.   You are the treated to one of the best wild life shows in the Britain as the sky becomes a constellation of birds rushing from the lagoons to return to the mudflats.  The clouds again swirl and gyrate to form intricate shapes and patterns.   To add to the show the plumage of the birds is highlighted by the sun to produce  a mosaic of colours to go with the mystical geometric shapes.   As if to accompany this display the flapping of the wings and the muted call of the birds makes a fantastic orchestral noise that enhances the pleasure.   No one who has witnessed this can help but be dump struck by its brilliance.

This show only last for about ten minutes and the clouds of birds disappear across the sea. Occasional  flurries of birds then sweep across the emerging mudflats but these do not compare with the performance you had just seen.

I hope the images I have captured do justice to this natural spectacle.