Hello!
Welcome to the RSPB Bempton Cliffs reserve on Flamborough Head, I am Ruth Porter the Seabird Research Officer at this site.
Flamborough Head and Bempton Cliffs is an amazing site for it’s geology, vegetation and of course it’s wildlife. It is designated as a SSSI, SPA, SAC, Heritage Site and a European Marine Site.
The site is extremely important for seabirds and is home each spring and summer to over 59,000 guillemots, 37,000 pairs of kittiwake, 14,500 razorbills, 6,000 pairs of gannet, 900 puffins, 800 pairs of fulmar and 500 pairs of herring gull.
The season is just getting started and thousands of kittiwakes, guillemots and razorbills, are returning to the cliffs, creating an amazing and unique sound and smell! The air is full with seabirds everywhere that you look. If you are lucky you will see a puffin, at this time of year they still spend time at sea before setting up their nests in cracks and crevices in the cliff face.
The gannet colony at Bempton Cliffs is England’s only gannetry and is Britain’s largest mainland nesting site for this species. These stunning birds are the first seabird to start breeding at this site and many of the birds already have eggs.
This season me and a team of keen volunteers will be collecting critical information about how healthy the seabird populations are, how many chicks they are raising and which fish they are bringing in to feed their young and where they are going to feed out at sea. This information is very important and will help to protect seabirds in the future.
Keep on eye on this blog as I will be updating you each week on the seabirds and the work we are doing.