To quote Wet Wet Wet, love is all around. The birds are getting smoochy and the seabird monitoring team have their work cut out keeping up with things as nature takes its course. Mike continues his tale from the cliff-edge:
Breeding season continues to gather pace here at Bempton Cliffs. Most of the gannets on our monitoring plots are on eggs, and there are more lovely turquoise guillemot eggs and brown/white razorbill eggs on thecliffs every day. Soon the seabird monitoring season will be in full swing.
Even our other species are finally getting in on the action at last. Our kittiwakes can be seen on the cliff tops, morning and evening, gathering material to repair their nests; and the fulmars, well a lot of the fulmars have disappeared, which they often do just before they come back to the cliffs to lay their eggs. Maybe they’re having a break before the serious business of incubating an egg –which they do for longer than any of our other birds - then raising their chicks.
.Kittiwakes gathering nesting material
But what about the puffins? I hear you cry. It’s certainly the bird we get asked about the most. puffins are natural burrow nesters – and at most colonies the only way to see the egg is to reach down the burrow and feel for it. At Bempton we can’t even do that since our birds, in the absence of burrows, nest deep in crevices in the tall cliffs. But eagle-eyed visitor centre staff have spotted one on our CCTV system – so we know that at least one little puffling is on its way!
Look closely, there's a puffin egg in there.