Hi everyone!
My name is Jess Mortimer and I am the newly appointed "Visitor Experience Assistant" at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. One of my many tasks is to keep the blog up to date with recent sightings and other information about what is happening on and around the reserve! I'm looking forward to getting stuck in and hopefully you'll enjoy reading what I have to say :-)
So, it's Easter Bank Holiday weekend and the big question on everyone's lips at the moment is "Where have all the Auks gone?" For over a month now we have had tens of thousands of Guillemots and Razorbills on the cliffs, and then, earlier this week, the Puffins came back to make a quick check of their nests. No sooner had the TV cameras arrived to film them they were gone! What we are all wondering is, what was the trigger that made the Puffins come and go and 'take the rest' of the Auks and many of the Kittiwakes with them? Of course we are all keeping our eyes on the cliffs for their imminent return in the next few days, but until then there are still thousands of Gannets and Kittiwakes to be seen and we are waiting for our very first 'Easter Egg' - the first Gannet egg of the season! Who will be the first to spot it?!
Lastly, we have some exciting news to share with you all. For the first time ever we have managed to get a good idea of the breeding population of puffins here on the cliffs. The trick was to count them on the sea before they returned to their nests. So, Dave and Keith set out with their telescopes and clickers and after 8 hours they managed to cover the whole length of the colony from Flamborough to Speeton. The Puffins were evenly spread on the water, from below the cliffs to 1km out at sea, mostly in small groups of up to 6, and their count totaled at approximately 2,300 individual birds, suggesting a breeding population of over 1,100 pairs! Hopefully when the Puffins make their return to the cliffs in the next few days we will get another chance to count them. We can't wait to have them back!
Recent SightingsSome of our visitors Alister, Anna and Myriam Burr were lucky enough to spot a Firecrest resting on the cliffs from the Jubilee viewpoint at Bempton Cliffs this afternoon. Rosemary, one of our view point volunteers at Jubilee also managed to snap a photograph of the gorgeous little bird on the viewpoint decking. This bird was part of an arrival of Firecrests on the East Coast with others seen at Flamborough Head and Spurn Point on the same day.