Love blossoms on cliffs
DIAMONDS may be a girl’s best friend, but a simple necklace of wild flowers is enough to woo your sweetheart on the windswept ledges of Bempton Cliffs in East Yorkshire.
About 8,000 pairs of gannets return every year to the RSPB nature reserve, between Bridlington and , often decorating their homes with grass, flowers, and even bits of rope and rubbish, and this pair of lovebirds were caught in a tender embrace by wildlife photographer Steve Race, with one sporting a necklace of red campion.
“We watched one of these birds bring in the red campion and pass it on to its would-be mate, which looks for all the world to be wearing it as a jewel-like necklace,” said site manager Ian Kendall. “If the pair return next year, settle down together and have a family, we’ll find out whether their adolescent romancing has paid off.”