Nature
Photo of Short Eared Owl - credit Mike Nicholas NYMNP
There are many opportunities for enjoying nature during your stay at Sealark Holiday Cottage. The North York Moors National Park is one of the best places to enjoy and appreciate nature and nature can be enjoyed all year round.
To make the best of these nature watching opportunities, please bring warm and waterproof gear and suitable footwear, plus sun protection, a water bottle and your camera to take photos. We provide a flask you can borrow for hot drinks and binoculars for wildlife watching. We provide books in the cottage on bird and wildflower identification which you can take out on your travels.
The hedges around Sealark cottage are filled with bird song. On summer evenings, if we sit outside in the courtyard, we often hear owls hooting. We have planted rosemary , thyme and lavenders in pots in the courtyard to attract the bees. In the front garden we have planted nasturtiums, fox gloves, pulmonaria, hellebores, cosmos and nigella which attract the bees and there is a hawthorn hedge in the front of the cottage that the bees love.
North York Moors National Park provides a nature calendar for a month by month guide on where to go and what you can see, as well as seasonal walks. There are lots of wildlife themed events and walks organised throughout the year too, see the Events Calendar for more details and to book.
Wildflowers
The North York Moors National Park has an array of stunningly beautiful wild flowers to view. In March/April you can visit Farndale to see the thousands of wild daffodils Farndale Daffodil Walk Blog In spring there are vast areas of yellow gorse with a scent of coconut. A good place to walk for bluebells, primroses and early purple orchids is Little Beck Wood Nature Reserve Little Beck Wood | YWT . June and July are the best times for seeing the 21 beautiful orchid species that grow in the North York Moors. August and September bring the purple blaze of heather attracting the bees – the moors look stunning blanketed in the heather.
Fen Bog nature reserve, Pickering is Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. It offers stunning views and is a lovely place for bird and butterfly watching and spotting wildflowers. Fen Bog | YWT The railway runs next to the nature reserve, so if you are lucky, you may see a steam train passing by.
Watching wildlife at sea
Minke, Humpback, Sei and Fin Whales have all been spotted of the North Yorkshire Coast, plus Porpoises, and Bottle-Nosed Dolphins. Go on a boat trip with Fins and Feathers trip or a 3 Sisters Sea Trip Three Sisters
Local to your cottage
Cowbar cliff top, an area of grassland to the north of Staithes village is home to a huge treasure of wildlife and plant life, including some rare and endangered species. It is a lovely walk bordered by the North Sea. Skylarks are regularly seen and heard, plus goldfinches in the late summer and autumn. There is a website giving information about the birds, plants, mammals and invertebrates that can be seen from Cowbar Cowbar Nature A website dedicated to the natural beauty of Cowbar and the surrounding area. It is lovely to spend time up on the cliff top, sitting on a bench and watching and listening to the Skylarks. In late spring, Cowbar cliffs are filled with nesting gulls. The noise they make is raucous.
Birds
Yorkshire Coast Nature Wildlife & Birdwatching - Yorkshire Coast Nature offer a variety of bird watching activities and wildlife photography activities which need to be booked in advance.
A variety of birds can be seen on the Scaling Dam Reservoir Walk. Scaling Dam Reservoir Walk
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