Mike, from our fabulous seabird montitoring team, reports on the flurry of furry chicks that are now appearing all along the cliffs.
It’s hard to believe it but the seabird breeding season is reaching its climax – good sized chicks are easily visible and we’ve already had our first fledging auks. So there’s never been a better time to visit Bempton Cliffs and savour the full spectacle of our breeding birds. For the seabird monitoring team life has gotten a whole lot easier over the last couple of weeks – at the start of the season we might spend 3 hours carefully checking 50 breeding sites for signs of an egg – now the chicks are so big and active we can cover a plot in an hour!
Here are some pictures to whet your appetite.
Gannet chicks are feathering in white and getting bigger – some of the chicks at Staple are too big for the parents to cover. Gannets have the longest fledging period of any of our birds. Note the size of the nest. Gannets re-use nest platforms and keep adding material throughout the season – you may see them at the cliff tops gathering nest material, or bringing in pieces of seaweed.
Guillemot chicks are starting to look more like juvenile birds. Guillemots chicks leave the nest site before they can fly and complete their development at sea. This picture was taken from the Grandstand viewpoint.
Kittiwakes had a slow start to the breeding season but there are plenty chicks around now. This pair was snapped looking down Grandstand Gully.
Spot the chick – this Razorbill chick was also photographed down Grandstand Gully but will probably have fledged by the time you read this. Razorbill chicks hatch mainly grey – but quickly feather in black. Like Guillemots they have a very short fledging period since they are vulnerable to predators on the ledges where they hatch. Do you see the bird on the left holding its wing at what looks like a funny angle? There’s a chick under there as well.