Goldfinch

'twas the Sunday before Christmas, when all on the cliffs

Actually, he has already been and a gift has been left in the form of a brand new viewpoint at Staple Newk! Not yet open to the public…

Sundays are very special for me - it's the day I volunteer at RSPB Bempton Cliffs and I feel blessed to have such a beautiful wild place on my doorstep. When I arrived this morning, the Sun was just breaking over the rolling hills highlighting a golden vista and the making of a pleasant December day.

Passing the remains of RAF Bempton on my way to Jubilee Corner Viewpoint, the light over the old buildings gave…

We've been deafened by the crunching of numbers while the seabird monitoring team has been doing its stuff.  Now the final figures are in, Mike Babcock, our seabird research assistant, gives us the low-down of what's been happening on the nesting sites this season.

Over to MIke...

2016 has been a tricky season.  We had prolonged periods of high winds, especially Northerlies, at the end of May/beginning of June…

We have never had a week as extraordinary as last week in Bempton Cliffs history! We had sightings of the Eastern-Crowned Warbler, Black-Browed Albatross, Red Breasted Flycatcher, Goldcrest, Arctic Warbler, Siberian Chiffchaff, Short-Eared Owl, Wheatear, Firecrest, Yellow-Browed Warbler, Blackcap, Brambling, Redpoll, Richard's Pipit, Ring Ouzel, Fieldfare and Marsh Harrier.

We are all still so excited about the Eastern…

The last few days have been SUPER exciting on the reserve. Due to the strong winds blowing the birds off course, we have been lucky enough to confirm sightings of a number of rare birds. The Eastern-Crowned Warbler was one of them, which had bird enthusiasts lining up in hope of catching a glimpse of the very rare bird for themselves. It is only the 4th time this bird has ever been seen in Britain, which as you can imagine…

It's a very blustery day here at Bempton Cliffs! We're into October now and Autumn has most certainly arrived. For the last couple of days we've had a NE wind, making a good migratory passage. Here is what we have recorded in our recent sightings book in the last few days...

Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Whinchat, Stonechat, Reed bunting, Blackcap, Blackbird, Dunnock, Song thrush, Rock pipit, Pied wagtail, Peregrine, Great…

Bird migration is in full swing at Bempton Cliffs as we move into late September. The arrival of the Yellow-browed Warblers has had everyone in a spin, with a record breaking number of 14 (maybe more) spotted on the reserve in one day. Our previous record was 5, so quite exciting for us! These very pretty little birds have been spotted on our Nature Trail, in The Dell and more recently this morning in the top car park…

Thanks to everyone that came along and joined in with our Bempton Cliffs Summer Fete at the end of August. Our staff and volunteers had so much fun manning the quirky stalls and visitors seemed to really enjoy themselves, with Hook-a-Puffin being a big favourite!

Chris couldn't resist joining in with the fun and ended up with a different face paint every day, his favourite being the puffin. He was a great advertisement…

A blustery, damp day isn't the best time to undertake a beach clean. (Ever tried controlling a black bin liner in a strong wind?  They have a life of their own.).  However, the hardy group who had turned up on Bridlington's North Beach to help collect litter were well prepared - which was just as well as August felt more like November.    

It's amazing what you find left behind on the sands.  If you use a phrase…

Hi, It's Helen here!

It’s been a busy few weeks at Bempton Cliffs, so I just wanted to let you know what has been happening here among other things.

We were involved with the National Whale and Dolphin Watch week at the end of July where we had volunteers and visitors help us to spot cetaceans from our clifftop viewpoints. We were lucky enough to have sightings of Harbour Porpoise, grey seals and a common…

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…

We often get letters from our visitors telling us how much they enjoyed their trip - and in this case, getting up close and personal with our spectacular gannets.   Thanks to Chrissy Gwilliam for sharing her and her husband Phil's experience with us.

"Living in the heart of Somerset we often travel to the coasts of Devon and Cornwall and sit looking out to sea in awe at the Gannets flying and feeding off shore.…

Well! This is my last blog on this site, as my time as a residential volunteer monitoring seabirds finishes at the end of this week – and it will be ‘Goodbye from me’ as the old saying goes. So, as a parting shot, I would like to share with you some thoughts on the final stages of the seabird breeding season here at Bempton, at least from a razorbill and guillemot perspective.

Home alone!

As you may…

Is there a badge for baking in the Brownies?   If there isn't, there should be.   Because the 9th Bridlington Brownies and Rainbows all deserve one.

They had a Puffin Muffin making session and came up with this selection of scrummy bakes.  

Let the girls know how well they've done by leaving a comment below and we'll pass them on.  

The Puffin Muffin competition continues until 20th July so if you think you…

Another update from Katharine! With the monitoring that Katharine is doing, she gets to be right in the heart of the action and so I really look forward to reading her blogs, as I'm sure you do too.

20^th June 2016

I was thinking it might be a good idea to let you know some of the tell tale signs that there are chicks about! It sounds easy to go out and look for chicks amongst the razorbills and guillemots, but until…

'Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball'.  You can't beat a bit of Queen when it comes to partying.  And, despite the miserable weather in the photo, that's exactly what we were doing when our local Phoenix group visited us to celebrate their 20th birthday.    It's quite an achievement when the group is older than its members who are all aged between 12 and 18.    

This time of year is so exciting at Bempton Cliffs! We have chicks everywhere and every time I catch sight of one I can't help but feel warm and fuzzy inside. In the last week or two we have started to spot the auk chicks huddled with their parents on their tiny ledges. I didn't know this, but auk chicks hatch at quite a good size, as they leave the nest after just 2 and a half weeks and need to be big enough to do so…

Every season we're fortunate to have several volunteers staying with us and helping out across the reserve.  Here's a first Hello from one who's signed up with the seabird monitoring team. You'll be getting regular updates from her so keep reading.   

Late May

Hello! And welcome to my first blog post whilst I am here at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. My name is Katharine Kite and I am the residential volunteer here…

The first day of June.   It's foggy.  It's rainy.  And it's blowing a gale - ok, it's not quite reached eight on the Beaufort scale but with gusts up to 40 miles per hour, it's as good as.  And today, of all days, we had guests from the Heritage Lottery Fund plus our Vice President paying us a visit.   We could only but hope they'd brought hats with chin straps.    

But whatever the weather it's always…

It seems that we're really on the world map.  We've had another bumper month of visitors from across the globe. We're thinking of putting up a map with pins in it showing all the different places that our visitors hail from just so we can keep track.  

Meanwhile, our cliff top reporter, Chris, has been out and about chatting with some of them:

'It's not often the chance arises to discover what other volunteers…

We are well and truly into puffin season now, and I'm still as excited as a child on Christmas morning every time I see one. Our Puffin Patrols have been full every day and we've had some lovely feedback from the excited visitors that are seeing puffins for the first time. The novelty really doesn't seem to wear off, and that's probably because the puffins are here for such a short space of time. If you are planning on…

As part of our commitment to developing the next generation of  conservationists, a number of enthusiastic young people join us on the reserve each year to see how we do things.  They learn a lot and they teach us quite a bit too.  And we love having them around and getting their views on life on the edge.  Helen is with us for the summer and this is Hello from her:

Hi everyone

First things first, let me introduce myself…

It's always a good day at the office when we get to release seabirds back into the wild.   Yesterday was twice as good because Whitby Wildlife Rescue brought a juvenile gannet and a puffin that they'd been caring for but that were now ready to be returned to the cliffs.

 Alex with Bempton Cliffs volunteer, Allan Dawson

Alex Farmer has run the charity for the past seven years after leaving her job in teaching…

For those who missed our recent press release, here are details of a visit by one of our local MPs.  

Following a recent visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Kevin Hollinrake MP, has become a species champion for the puffin to help raise awareness of the plight of this endangered seabird.

Like many visitors to the cliffs, puffins were high on the MP’s must-see list and he was able to spot several puffins from the RSPB’s main…

We know lots of you out there have got the Mary Berry touch when it comes to making cakes.  If we can, we'd like to put those skills to good use to help raise awareness of the puffins at Bempton Cliffs - and their plight worldwide.

So welcome to the Great Bempton Bake-off and Puffin Muffins.   The idea is for all you budding bakers to whip up your very own Puffin Muffin (made to any recipe you like) and upload a photo…