It's windy as hell up here on the North Yorkshire coast right now, and with plenty of Fulmars prospecting the ledges and rafting on the sea, a session at Gristhorpe Bay (the highest and most northerly point within our recording area) seemed like a good idea. As hoped, they were doing their beautiful, effortless hang-gliding thing below and alongside me, which was easily good enough as you might imagine; but then it got better still, when this subtly smoky Blue briefly swung by, said hi and buggered off out to sea.
As a scarce, often hard-won passage seabird, Blue Fulmars are always a pleasure to see, but rarely do I get the opportunity to fill the frame and look one in the eye; kind of the opposite of February blues, then. Below is a 'regular' bird, taken from the same spot a few seconds later, for comparison.
