Seabird and Whale Trips off to a Flyer

Sun 21st Jul, 2024

On the 19th July we sailed out of the beautiful harbour of Staithes in the North York Moors National Park into the blue North Sea. It was the summer of 2014 when Sean and I first met and started our business partnership. This is our tenth year of running these boat trips.

Looking south from Staithes harbour at 7am 19 July 2024

I announced to our guests that it was our birthday and therefore a special weekend. After this big introduction, I was really hoping for great seabirds and some whale action. We had four trips, all virtually fully booked so I was excited to show everyone the wildlife on the coast where I grew up.

Northern Gannets feeding frenzy - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

Our journey started well with seabird feeding activity close to the boat. There were hundreds of Black-legged Kittiwakes and similar numbers of Herring Gulls feasting on big numbers of Sand eels just offshore. Alongside the gulls there were large numbers of Guillemots and Razorbills. Both of these auks had many juveniles alongside them. The smaller chicks stayed close to their parent and away from other birds but the larger juveniles gathered into groups with the adults forming a creche, it was fascinating to see the different behaviour depending on the age of the chicks. In amongst the auks and gulls were small numbers of Northern Gannets diving into the food.

Manx Shearwaters - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

Before long we found our first Manx Shearwaters. Great views of two on the outer edges of a feeding frenzy, they were joining in the feast but staying away from the frenetic gang of Herring Gulls. It took us a few hours to find our first Minke Whale but then we had really nice views of two animals which were only a mile offshore from Kettleness sea cliffs. Both whales were feeding close to the surface and it looked like one was smaller so this may have been a calf alongside an adult Minke.

Great Crested Grebe - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

Shortly afterwards Beth (Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Marine Research Assistant) spotted a grebe. A Great Crested Grebe in late summer is unusual as we usually only see them on the coast in winter. We are joined on all of our trips by Yorkshire Wildlife Trust volunteers who carry out a scientific survey of all the cetaceans we see. Harbour Porpoises showed briefly on both of our 19th July trips.

Sooty Shearwater - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

After a really good start we were hoping for an equally as good afternoon trip. Within 30 mins of sailing we found a Minke Whale. The next feeding group we visited held three Manx Shearwater and Sean spotted a bird he thought could be a Sooty Shearwater. Seans hunch was correct and we enjoyed great views of two Sooty Shearwaters feeding close to the boat. It is very early for this ocean wanderer to appear in the North Sea. We normally see them in September.

Arctic Skua - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

The trip ended with very good views of an Arctic Skua which not surprisingly was hanging around the feeding flocks of Kittiwakes ready to harass any unsuspecting birds.

Atlantic Puffin (juvenile) - Staithes 20 July 2024 © Richard Baines

The sailing conditions were excellent on both days but Sunday was even calmer when the sea was like glass. Big numbers of Moon Jellyfish with their beautiful purple rings showed really well alongside the boat in the clear water. Further out at sea we found a juvenile Atlantic Puffin not long out of the nest.  

Northern Fulmar - Staithes 20 July 2024 © Richard Baines

These conditions are amazing for photography and my favourite seabird on the Yorkshire coast, the Northern Fulmar, is a great subject on these trips. They are so graceful in flight but gregarious feeding on the sea and landing is taken with feet held out and a belly flop!

Common Scoter - Staithes 20 July 2024 © Richard Baines

On the 19th we saw one or two flocks of Common Scoter migrating north. On the 20th we saw many hundreds with many more flocks. These Arctic ducks are an impressive sight flying so fast and close to the waves like a flowing ribbon of birds. On this day they chose to stay close to the cliffs with most flocks within a few hundred meters of the shore.

This wildlife spectacle unfolding around us included amazing migration and local seabirds and I mustn’t forget the migrating Small White butterflies which passed us by a few miles from shore.

Minke Whale - Staithes 20 July 2024 © Richard Baines

With such amazingly calm sea we expected to have more whale sightings but on the afternoon of the 20th our Minke Whale luck ran out. Two animals again in the morning in a similar area to where we saw them the previous day was really good but, despite searching really hard, we couldn’t find any on our afternoon three-hour trip. Whales on three out of four trips, shearwaters, big seabird feeding frenzies and lots more exciting wildlife encounters was a great start to our boat trip season. To see our 2024 trips and book CLICK HERE

Boat crew guests - Staithes 19 July 2024 © Richard Baines

© Richard Baines

Director and Wildlife Guide

Yorkshire Coast Nature