June Sightings

If you’re thinking of making a trip up here this month, you’re making an excellent decision! June is probably the best month of the year to visit, as the cliffs are now full of chicks large enough to see with the naked eye. Over the noise of the kittiwakes and gannets, you can just about hear their cheeping sound all over the cliffs.

• Kittiwake chicks are growing and growing and can now be seen with the naked eye from most of the viewpoints. They are making for a very cute sight, especially when there are 2 or 3 chicks all squashed in together as one big grey fluffy ball.

  

• Gannet chicks can also be seen from most of the view points, but the best views are still from Staple Newk. Older chicks are looking much more gannet-like, with their long black bills starting to look pretty menacing.
• The puffling has occasionally been seen in its burrow by lucky visitors at Grandstand. Puffins are also frequently seen close to the viewing platform at the entrance to the nest
• The Guillemot chicks have been keeping us thoroughly entertained for the last few days. Many of them are now at the age where they are preparing to fledge, and can be seen waddling around their ledges flapping their wings in preparation. Although guillemot chicks tend to fledge at night, there have been several spotted bobbing on the sea in the early evening. Watch for long enough and you might even see  one pinging off it's ledge into the sea to join it's parent.
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Other sightings

There was a flurry of excitement at the center earlier this week, as we got word that a group of 11 Bee-Eaters were seen flying over the headland towards Bempton Cliffs. Sure enough, many lucky visitors and volunteers caught a glimpse of them as they flew over the reserve. We’ve also had several sightings of Great Skuas passing through during the past week. More often than not they've been seen floating on the sea munching on a Kittiwake that got a bit too close.

Spotted flycatchers, reed buntings, corn buntings, linnets and whitethroats have all been spotted in the surrounding grassland, and a grey partridge has again been seen on the nature trail. Our resident barn owl can still be seen hunting around the center in the early evening, and a peregrine falcon has been spotted more and more regularly hunting over Staple Newk. The swallows nesting next to the visitor center entrance now have either 3 or 4 chicks, and can often be seen being fed by one of the adults.

Laura