My wife has never seen a puffin and we'd hoped she'd find one in Cornwall, but she was still waiting. While on holiday in Scotland we decided to book some accommodation in Bridlington, stopping there on the way home.
In Bridlington we had a delicious meal at "Salt" in the harbour before retiring for the night - there was quite a bit of noise from the harbour, the room was quite warm, and we didn't sleep as well as we hoped. In the morning I managed a full breakfast, but my wife had a migraine and could only manage some toast and tea. We checked out and made the short journey to the RSPB Bempton Cliffs reserve with fingers crossed that there would be a puffin and in view - it was very late in the season.
On arrival I claimed to have achieved the challenge when I introduced her to a 5ft high plastic puffin outside the Visitor's Centre - she laughed but I suspect she was hoping I wasn't joking. We passed through the Centre and established that we would be best turning left along the cliff face - when I visited previously this is where I had my best views of the puffins.
There were a good number of birds on the cliff faces, on the water and in the sky but so many fewer than when the season is in full swing. The gannets were the stars of the show and were by far the most numerous. Ominously there were no puffins to be seen and all but two guillemots in view on the cliff. Gannets fed reasonably close to shore and from time to time would gather and perform synchronous diving in search of their fish. The food supply had come close to shore, and we were informed that a few minke whales had followed them in and were visible from the shore - but not at the moment.
I scanned all the cliffs, and on the water, looking for a puffin but was coming up empty. Helpfully the RSPB Volunteer (on the platform we found ourselves on) said he wasn't aware of any from this viewpoint. I found a couple of guillemots, one of which had a jumpling behind. I'm told these birds only have one chick and this guillemot was sitting on theirs - who knows where this lone jumpling's parents were.
On the cliffs and in the air were numbers of kittiwake, a mixture of adults and juveniles. The juveniles were striking in their plumage, and I set about trying to get a photo of one.
Eventually I scoped a puffin far out on the water and to our right. I put Charlotte on the bird - she wasn't impressed with the dot she was being presented with - she'd seen one but not to her satisfaction ...
I spotted another puffin on the wing and followed it as it weaved around the cliffs. Fortunately, it dived into a hole in the rock and was visible through the scope. Excellent - I showed Charlotte and she was really pleased - result. The bird came and went and each time we got a couple of minutes view. I let the Volunteer know where the bird was in case anyone else wanted to see one. Mission accomplished; we headed back to the Visitor Centre for some lunch.
We had an hour or so before we needed to head for home and so we dropped back down to the cliff and turned right. We were afforded more displays by the gannets and kittiwakes, and a handful of tree sparrows flew back and forth from the cliff edge back up and into the scrub and hedges. We stopped at the viewing platform I'd seen the black-browed albatross from last year and had just one sighting of a puffin - on the wing and impossible to put Charlotte on. Out in the bay minke whales and dolphins could be seen rising and falling as the fed on the shoals of fish, accompanied by diving gannets. It was quite a sight and a great way to end the day.
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