In mid July I spent a very enjoyable couple of days filming gannets with my friend and fellow pro wildlife photographer, Alan Hewitt. There are about 22,000 gannets at RSPB Bempton Cliffs as well as 180,000 other seabirds, including puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes and even a random albatross seen shortly before we arrived. Living near the Farne Islands, we’re used to having puffins and the like coming out of our ears, so it was the gannets that were the real target of this trip, as they don’t nest on the Farnes.

It’s a bit of a trek across the North York Moors for us to get to Bempton, which is near Bridlington in Yorkshire, but it was well worth it. This is a place where you can happily film and photograph the birds from the cliff top without having the issues that Bass Rock suffers from: namely landing costs and weather stopping play. Bass Rock is, arguably a better experience because of the sheer number of gannets that nest there are the angles you can get to photograph them – with the large caveat that it costs a fortune and boat trips are often cancelled due to bad weather.