Bempton Cliffs

Mowing the lawn on a Sunday took a very different turn at RSPB Bempton Cliffs recently.

Martin Stevens, from Hunmanby, is part of a group that meets up regularly to mow grassland using a scythe. And having visited the cliff top nature reserve, he thought that the meadow beyond the Seabird Centre would be the perfect place to practice cutting the ‘sward’. 

It’s a hobby that began around three years ago and…

Image: Kittiwake and chicks, Martin Jones-Gill

This week, I’m delving into the world of kittiwake monitoring! This is carried out in a pretty similar way to the herring gull monitoring I do here, but this time I’m watching just one fixed spot. My plot is on our Bartlett Nab viewpoint and here I am keeping an eye on 53 AON (apparently occupied nests) that I’ve marked up on a photograph of the cliff face.…

Each week, I head out on to the reserve to monitor a selection of herring gull nests. This year I’m keeping an eye on around 20 AOS (apparently occupied sites) that I’ve marked up across the reserve, between Jubilee Corner and Staple Newk viewpoints. But after some rather interesting weather conditions and some incredible vegetation growth here, there are few plots that I’ve not been able to see much of! Now, I’m keeping…

Ahead of World Seabird Day tomorrow, our next blog of our seabird series is all about the fantastic productivity monitoring we carry out here and why we do it.

So… what is productivity monitoring?

Productivity monitoring at Bempton Cliffs

Every year we carry out our seabird monitoring programme along the cliffs of Flamborough, Bempton and Filey. This is carried out by a seabird research team, reserve staff and…

An awful lot of work goes on behind the scenes at Bempton Cliffs. Between staff and volunteers, we conduct a whole host of seabird research here. From colony counts, to productivity monitoring and even tagging and tracking. Through research like this we can find out things like how many birds we have here, how successful they are with rearing chicks and even where they’re finding food!

In 2017 we did the largest…

There was an incredible start to the last week in March at RSPB Bempton Cliffs as visitors, volunteers and staff were treated to an amazing display from a pod of travelling bottlenose dolphins.

 Image: Ian Crossley

Estimates suggest there were around 25 adults moving southerly towards Flamborough, just 50 metres from the cliff. The dolphins were seen ‘breaching’ the waves and a young calf was clearly visible.…

Tuesday 30 March wasn’t just another day at the office for the team at RSPB Bempton Cliffs nature reserve..

Volunteers on the nature reserve’s viewing platforms were amazed to see not one but two white-tailed eagles, the UK’s largest birds of prey, soaring over the sea.

 Bempton Cliffs' sighting - Image: Ian Crossley

These giants of the sky have a massive wingspan of around 2.4metres (approx 8 feet…

As we’ve all recently learnt, sometimes the worst of times lead to the best of things. 

So when Jean Armstrong’s son, Paul, passed away in 2019, she wanted to find something special to do with the money raised from the collection at his funeral.

Jean and her late husband James, have been long-time supporters of the RSPB and through this link to the charity she learnt of a piece of sculpture being created at…

Hot off the press from our Warden, Dave Aitken, the lowdown on how our tree sparrows have fared this season.  Get ready, here come the numbers:

• 274 chicks successfully fledged from 40 active (contained eggs/chicks) nest boxes.
• A total of 91 separate nesting attempts were made from those 40 boxes of which 79 fledged chicks (102 nesting attempts from 44 boxes in 2019 of which 83 fledged chicks).
• 10 boxes had 1 nesting attempt…

I must be one of the few people who still use CDs for what they were intended and not turned them into coasters or wind chimes.  

During lockdown, I’ve dug out a few discs that haven’t seen the light of day for years and played them on an ancient portable CD player that’s provided the background music to many a picnic.   

One disc that came out of hibernation is Michael Nyman’s soundtrack to the 1993 Oscar…

Following the latest clear instructions from the Government for us all to remain at home apart from a limited number of allowed activities, we are closing our reserve to visitors until further notice.

These measures are on top of the existing closure of our visitor centres, cafes and shops.  It is with great sadness that we ask people to refrain from visiting the RSPB, to help us restrict the spread of coronavirus.

Following the latest government advice we have made the difficult decision to close the Seabird Centre to visitors from Thurs 19 March. This is to prioritise the health and welfare of our staff, volunteers and visitors.

These are difficult and unsettling times for all of us but we hope that nature can provide a welcome respite in whichever form and wherever you may encounter it. We want to do everything we can to help…

Plus Short-eared Owl

Year 1 and Year 2 pupils at Bempton Primary School helped give nature a home at their local nature reserve.

RSPB Bempton Cliffs invited the children to lend a hand planting 100 aspen and 100 hawthorn saplings to help create and maintain boundary lines, along with a number of gorse and honeysuckle shrubs to enhance existing areas of greenery.

17 local school children braved the elements on a cold but sunny day to help…