See you next year auks (and recent sightings!)

It is officially the end of the auk season at Bempton Cliffs. We have the odd puffin and guillemot visible on the water, but the rest of the gang and their chicks appear to have left us until next season. It's been a busy few months, with tons of excited visitors spotting a puffin for the first time, leaving us with a tick on their bucket list and a promise to come back and see them again next year. We were lucky enough to even spot a puffling this year from our viewpoints, which is a very special treat as the parents usually keep them hidden safely in the burrow. All in all it's been a successful puffin season and as I mentioned in a previous blog post we managed to do our first Bempton Cliffs puffin count, so next year we will know whether the population is increasing or declining. 


Image Credit: Misa Mass (facebook)

The gannets are stealing the spotlight now, with our guided gannet walks leaving the visitor centre at 11am every Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. The gannets have such a wide window of opportunity to lay their eggs, so as you can see from the photo below, they are all in different stages. We have the fluffy white cotton wool chicks, right through to chicks that will be ready to fledge around the 2nd week in August. The last gannet to fledge will be around mid-October and then the gannets will leave us at the end of October, so there is still plenty of time for you to come along and see these magnificent birds with your own eyes!

Image credit: Nick Hanson @nickhansonphoto

Last weekend we had a sighting of this beautiful Ruddy Darter dragonfly on the reserve. This species of dragon fly moved north of the Humber in the early 1990’s. It can now be found in many areas in East Yorkshire. It is locally abundant. However, to our knowledge it has never been recorded at RSPB Bempton Cliffs Reserve - despite extensive searching over the years. Last weekend, there were 2 males together for 1.5 hours in cliff top grass at Old Dor viewpoint. The image shows classic features (compared with Common Darter) being blood red, black legged and ‘waisted' near the base of the abdomen. 

Image and words credit: Trevor Charlton

Before I jump onto the recent sightings, we have our Bempton Cliffs Summer Fete taking place on the reserve from 25th - 31st August. Come and join us for this fun event where you can have your face painted as an animal, a bird, a bug or a butterfly. Try your hand at the ring toss and find out if your aim is as good as an Auks! Throw a coin on the chocolate toss and try to catch a ‘fish’ for your dinner. Hook-a-Puffin and win a prize or learn an interesting fact about Bempton’s most popular sea bird - all for a small donation! I have really enjoyed preparing this event, especially turning these rubber ducks into puffins! It would be great to see as many visitors as possible join us and help us to raise money for our reserve. We also have a raffle full of amazing prizes, including prints by the amazing Steve Race and Chrys Mellor. There is no need to book, just turn up and have fun! 

Recent Sightings

Here is a list of our recent sightings over the last week or so... redshank, great skua, canada goose, cormorant x 10 flying north past Bartlett Nab, common scoter, juvenile cuckoo spotted throughout this week and again yesterday at Staple Newk in the afternoon and this morning flying from New Roll Up inland, kestrel, yellow wagtail, marsh harrier, great white egret, peregrine, great skua, harbour porpoise, grey seal, lesser whitethroat, grasshopper warbler, reed warbler, painted lady butterfly x8, swallow, oystercatcher x 16 flying south, ruddy darter dragonfly, six-spot burnet moth.

There is so much to see here and our recent sightings book is available for you to view in our visitor centre. Feel free to add anything you have spotted yourselves!