We've had more globe trotting visitors to the cliffs tops recently.  But even folk closer to home sometimes make a big effort to get here.  Earlier this month, a family from London gave their son a birthday treat by driving all the way from the capital to the reserve to see a puffin - and then drove home.  That's real puffin dedication.  

Puffins are on the must-see list of lots of our international visitors too…

It's officially a month since I started my new role at Bempton Cliffs and I am enjoying every minute of it! My last blog noted that the Auks had all disappeared, but fear not, they have returned! Over the last week here at Bempton we’ve been lucky enough to see all of the ‘Big 8’ sea birds from the cliffs. Our live cameras have been a big hit too, capturing live footage from the cliffs and streaming it straight into our…

We’re not big on fashion up on the cliff tops.  So when you see your colleagues wearing something other than their usual fleece and welly combo, it’s really weird.  It’s especially weird when they’ve swapped their work clothes for DJs and sequins (rarely seen together on the same person, I hasten to add).  And, because we’re Yorkshire folk, it’s a sight that usually elicits the famous response, ‘By…

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…

As everyone who's ever visited knows, Bempton Cliffs is a popular place - and to prove it (as if we needed to) we've just been named joint winners of the Visitor Attraction category in the Remarkable East Yorkshire Tourism Awards 2016. 

But we're not just loved locally.  Every year Bempton Cliffs meets and greets visitors from all corners of the world.  Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia…

I suspect for most people, any long-term thoughts about eggs have probably been confined to which end of a boiled one you eat first (little-endians, you are wrong).  

But Tim Birkhead isn’t most people.   For a start, he’s a serious  academic who’s able to make science as appealing as hot buttered toast.   He’s also spent the past 40 years studying, amongst other things, guillemots on the island of Skomer…

Easily dismissed as the usual resident locals, flocks of grey geese are worth a closer look at this time of year – particularly for Pink-footed Geese, wild wanderers that perfectly encapsulate the wonder of long-distance migration on our doorsteps, writes Mark James Pearson As in most parts of the UK, here in East Yorkshire the default Anser (grey goose species) is the Greylag (above right), a successful…

It seems strange to think about winter in the middle of summer but there is a good reason for it.  I remember one Christmas seeing Tommy Steele in the title role of 'Scrooge' at somewhere like the Bradford Alhambra theatre.    One of the big songs from the show was 'Thank you very much' - and it strikes me if there'd been a soundtrack to the event we held at the end of last month, this would have been it.…

November will soon be over, Christmas adverts are playing on the television and we’ve already had the first snows of winter, in fact I was lucky enough to have a ‘white birthday’, winter is well and truly upon us. That shouldn’t put you off from visiting Bempton Cliffs though. It’s equally as beautiful and remarkable a place now as during the height of summer. A bracing cliff top walk at this time of year is just the…

Greetings from Bempton Cliffs. November is upon us, the nights are drawing in and before you know it will be the New Year. Don’t worry if you haven’t made a trip up to Bempton yet this year though, we have a series of great events planned during the winter months. Every Friday until the 5^th of February we will be hosting a special guided walk. Through November these will be focusing on the spectacular geology…

 

Youngsters from North Frodingham Primary School have chosen RSPB Bempton Cliffs as their Charity of the Year.

The 13 pupils, all aged between three and five years old, in the Foundation Stage Unit decided to support the East Yorkshire Coast’s popular nature reserve after seeing news coverage of a gannet rescue on the cliff face.

Teacher, Tracey Stainton, said the whole class was really concerned about the plight…

Well here I am again back with my second post for the Bempton blog. I’ll fill you in on some recent sightings in just a minute but first I’ll give you an idea of some of the things I’ve been getting up to since starting as an intern here at Bempton. Membership recruitment is an incredibly important part of Bempton Cliffs, as it is for every RSPB reserve, so I’ve been trying my hand at this one day a week, with some success…

'There's husbandry in heaven.  The candles are all out'.   I love this Shakespeare quote about thrifty angels.   But it's not the first thing you want to spring to mind on a Stargazing evening.

So, you guessed it, despite the skies in the run up to the event being so clear you might believe you could see to the very bottom of a Black Hole, there wasn't a star to be seen as we welcomed our visitors.. 

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Hi there. Allow me to introduce myself, I’m Chris Calow and I’m your brand new visitor experience intern. I’ve taken the reins from Laura and Becky who did a fantastic job over what was an incredibly busy and challenging time for the team here at Bempton. I think it’s safe to say that the season wouldn’t have been the success that it was without them and the contributions which they made. All good things come to an end…

Last Thursday was a really good day at the office.  Thanks to the RSPCA, we were able to save one of our 30,000 gannets.  

Visitors on the reserve's Jubilee Corner viewpoint alerted staff to a trapped gannet on the cliff face that was obviously in some distress.  Their call set in motion a chain of events that culminated in a successful two-hour rescue operation undertaken in conjunction with the RSPCA.

Having been…

Just like the sea birds, it is now our time to leave the cliffs for the winter. This is going to be our last blog post from Bempton Cliffs, as myself and Laura are going to be spending the winter at Coombes Valley and Fairburn Ings for the remainder of our internship. Watching the cliffs go from almost empty at the start of the season, all the way up to full capacity by June has been absolutely incredible. We've both…