DURING a week spent on the Yorkshire coast in mid-September I approached the towering cliffs of the Bempton RSPB reserve with trepidation, fearful of what I might discover.

I knew that the guillemots, razorbills and puffins, or at least those that had survived the devastation of the bird flu sweeping up the coast, would have left in mid-July to winter out at sea where hopefully, with less close contact with other birds they would be less likely to become infected.

What about the gannets? Many should still be present for some would still have well grown young while others would not yet have abandoned their cliff territories to begin their southward migration.

I had read that gannet numbers were showing a 25% decline and that thousands had died on the Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth, the world’s largest colony with 75,000 nests. Seabird colonies, with thousands of birds crowded together, act as superspreaders of the deadly H5N1 virus which is transferred via body fluids and faeces.

I was relieved to find that, although the Bempton gannet colony must have suffered some losses, activity appeared normal with hundreds of birds doing circuits out from and back to the cliffs.

In places fully grown juveniles, each with an attendant adult, were perched on the narrow ledges preening and flapping their wings as they prepared for their imminent departure. Many of these young birds would eventually set off before being able to fly properly, swimming the first part of their southward journey.

It is likely that the full damage inflicted on the seabird colonies by this year’s bird flu will not be known until birds return in the spring. Even then, given that H5N1 is possibly endemic across much of the wild bird population, there is no guarantee that the pandemic is over. It is to be hoped that those that have survived it have developed some immunity.

Away from the cliffs, the highlight of my holiday was provided by a much smaller creature, a hummingbird hawk-moth on red valerian in a roadside garden. It zoomed between the tiny pink flowers, each visited for a second before moving on to dip its incredible long tongue into another.

It has apparently been a record summer for these day-flying moths in the UK. They arrive from southern Europe and some breed here and it could be that this one may have emerged in this country. They are not usually able to survive the winter although, as with so many other creatures, that may change as the British climate warms.

wharfedale-nats.co.uk