A Seawatch Festival, which will advise the public in responsible bird and seal watching as well as other nature based activities, will take place this weekend on the Flamborough Headland.
Tony Hood from the Flamborough Bird and Seawatch observatory explained: “We will have events throughout the weekend including seal watching, trying to inform the public on this fantastic spectacle of the grey seals we have here and inform on how to watch them responsibly, as you know there’s been some disturbances with them so it’s a great way to engage with people.
Added Tony: “There is no better place on the East Coast of Britain to witness migrating seabirds from a land-based site especially from our purpose built Seawatch Observatory.”
Events will run every day from 28-30 August and will include guided sealwatching, an evening of identifying and viewing moths, migration walks and much more. Some events need to be booked online.
Events include
- Information point – 10am-4pm
- Guided Seawatching Sessions – daily from both inside and outside the Seawatch Observatory 7am-10am and 4pm-7pm
- Migration walks – Daily walks taking in the Old Fall and other Outer Head hotspots looking for migrants and hopefully the odd rarity. 10am-12:30pm. To enable the walk leaders to give everyone all the attention they need there is a limit on numbers for each walk so booking in advance by emailing info@flamboroughbirdobs.org.uk is required stating which day you would like to join the walk.
- Sealwatch – Telescopes will be set up to view the loafing seals on the tideline 2pm-5pm
Saturday Evening
- Online talk – ‘Flamborough Seawatching’ with Craig Thomas, Chair of Flamborough Bird Observatory. Details of times and link to follow.
Sunday Evening
- Moths and Storm Petrels based at South Landing. This will be a late evening event, starting after dark and possibly going on till after midnight.
Park at the Living Seas Centre, South Landing.
There is no charge for any of the activities, all are free
All daily events will be based at the Seawatch Observatory.
Directions: Park at Flamborough Lighthouse carpark. With the lighthouse on your left, walk down the private road towards the Fog Station, the white buildings on the cliff edge. The Seawatch Observatory is the wooden building on the right hand side of the Fog Station compound.
Tony continued: “Also with our purpose built seawatching observatory building it gives us opportunity to showcase what birds are passing the headland, some like the Black-browed Albatross thats been here for a couple of months, have their breeding grounds on the Falkland Islands”
Flamborough Head is internationally recognised for its breathtaking landscape and breeding seabirds. It is also important for seabirds migrating past the Head, especially in the late summer and autumn with the possibility of seeing skuas, shearwaters and terns.
For further information: https://flamboroughbirdobs.org.uk/events/seawatch-festival-2021/
