A couple of weekends ago, so early May, Gina and I with Nick & Amy, drove the 70 or 80 miles to the East Coast to see the Puffins arriving just north of Bridlington. As is common in this crowded land we found, in the middle of almost nowhere, a beautiful RSPB Centre together with car parking for hundreds of cars, and simply no room for us. So true to form we parked on the side of the narrow road, up on the grass edge along the road from the official car park. So the positive spin is that we didn't have any parking charges to pay!
After a picnic and a nice cuppa we set off along the path to the cliffs. I found two puffins about a half mile along the path and waited my opportunity for a gap to appear in the crowd along the railings at the edge of the cliff. The others walked on for another mile or so to the RSPB telescopes. There was a good variety of sea birds and none so fetching as the few puffins in their new breeding plumage. We were a tad early in the season for the thousands that will arrive.
They are lovely little birds, which surprised me. Not that they were beautiful, I knew that from the zillions of pix in the photography mags, but that they were quite small, about the size of an ordinary seagull. I believe that these fragile creatures live at sea for the entire year, apart from the breeding season around now, and that they are usually a black/grey for most of the time.
And Nick drove us there and back, so it was a very relaxing trip for Gina and I.
