On Monday evening a Black-browed Albatross was reported as having spent time at Bempton during the day and into the evening. I didn't get the news until around 11PM just after the France v Switzerland game in the Euros so didn't take too much notice. Tuesday morning and the bird was reported again and reports continued throughout the day. The bird concerned has been spending time at Bempton over the last few years but was thought to have fell victim to a couple of Sea Eagles in Denmark so it has taken the birding community by surprise.
I hatched a mad plan with the Jims to leave at 12.30am this morning and at 4.30am we were looking over the cliffs along with around 300 other like minded fools. The bird had moved from its roost area of the previous night and so we walked the cliff to search for it. The crowd grew and by 7am there was still no sightings when all of a sudden the shout went up "there it is!" It wasn't as easy to pick out in flight as I expected but once I got my eye in it was a lot easier to find as it flew around the cliff edges for the next couple of hours before setting down for the day on the rocks with the Gannets.
The Albatross is a bird I never expected to see in the UK as although this particular bird returns each year its appearance on our east coast is usually brief. It was truly fantastic to see such an impressive beast performing and has to be one of the best bird encounters I have experienced. The sanity of a dawn raid is questionable and not without risk in time, money and reward but on this occasion it was without doubt worth the risk.
My images don't really do it justice as I spent more time looking though my bins and scope than my camera but I did grab a couple of records shots.
Year list now 206
Life list now 423
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