Yellowhammer and other wildlife spotted during a wander round Thornwick Bay holiday park during my last morning in Yorkshire - 12th June 2026

I had been hoping to see a Yellowhammer during my week in East Yorkshire, but it only happened on my last morning when I went to the back of the lake where I had previously seen the lovely Brown Hare

A walk along the path behind the hedge on the border of the holiday park produced a Common Whitethroat

a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly

a Painted Lady butterfly

a rather distant male Linnet

and a very quickly disappearing Skylark

On the side of the site near the sea, I came across a Meadow Pipit perching on a bramble

The field on the cliff in front of the holiday park was full of grass stems swaying in the wind

and beautiful yellow Meadow Buttercups

There were some lovely mauve Poppies by one of the entrances to Thornwick nature reserve

 I spent a great week on the East Yorkshire coast with all sorts of weather - sun, heat, wind, rain, thunder and lightning - and had a really great time.  I hope I will be able to go there again next year!

Another visit to Holy Island - 13th May 2026

It was a very wet morning but, as it was one of the few days that a bus service was running from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Holy, I decided to risk it and go anyway.  It was raining when I arrived, but then the sun came out and it was a lovely day.

Rabbits in a garden not far from the car park

Lovely yellow flowers growing on the side of the wall

Swallows perching on top of gravestones in the churchyard

Statue of St Cuthbert in the churchyard

Black Guillemot in the water in front of St Cuthbert's island - really too far away for my camera

Black Guillemot and a male Eider duck

St Cuthbert's island

Pansies in a small public garden in the village

White Wisteria just starting to bloom

Another wet Pansy

Poppies in front of a hotel

Singing Dunnock

Hens at the farm

Male Reed Bunting near a path leading to the coast

gathering food for his nestlings

Sheep resting on grass just outside the bird hide with the Emanuel monument in the distance

Skylark kindly landed in a nearby field long enough for me to take a photograph

Little Grebe on the water in front of the bird hide

Linnet perching on tall grass

Bunch of pretty Cowslips

Ruined building near the path leading to the beach

Lindisfarne castle in the distance

View from a hilly walk

Meadow Pipit perching on a twig

Buck Roe deer with an itch

He spotted me!

Skylark in a field on my way back to the village

Collared Dove in the hotel yard

The Poppy bud that I photographed when I first arrived on the island had begun to open up by the time I was going back to the car park in order to get the bus at around 17.00

Pretty Poppies