This will be my last Blog post as I am in my final week of being a Residential Volunteer here at Bempton Cliffs. I have had a fantastic experience here. Bempton wildlife has put on a phenomenal show and the volunteers and staff here have been wonderful. Over the past few weeks I have had the privilege of witnessing some magical wildlife experiences, including;  watching 4+ Harbour Porpoises from Bartlett Viewpoint this morning…

The last couple of weeks have seen a lot of changes here at Bempton! Most of the Puffins have left the cliffs until next year now, although a few have been seen bobbing around on the water over the last few days. Guillemots and Razorbills have continued to leave the cliffs in large numbers, and there are now just a few left.

Chrys Mellor ©

But it’s not all sad! There are still the amazing Gannets here…

It’s always a special time - when the glow of the day turns to the gold of the evening.   And so it was for the final evening puffin patrol of the season.

On Grandstand viewpoint, puffins were ticked of the must-see list.  There’s been a puffin nesting unusually close to this viewpoint and the puffling inside the crevice in the cliff has been visible on many occasions.  In fact, it’s appeared in so many…

Hello again,

Warning: This blog contains extremely adorable photos of Seabird chicks.

First Fulmar chick spotted!

I was very excited about this, so I started looking for others. A few Fulmars looked like they were sitting on fluffy cushions. I had to wait a while until the adult fidgeted and a tiny face would appear out of the fluff.

The Fulmars are understandably very protective over this vulnerable ball of fluff…

Welcome to a guest post from Mike - Seabird Research Assistant.

Hello all. At the end of last season my blog posting privileges expired and this season the team have been doing such a great job that I never felt the need to get them restored, until now.

One of my favourite things about the seabird work that we do here at Bempton is that there is still so much to learn. I was reminded of this most recently by Razorbill…

If you're a Bempton Cliffs fan, I'm sure you tuned in to BBC 2's Springwatch at Easter programme to see both Chris Packham and Michaela Strachen smitten by our wildlife spectacle.  

The show went out as 'live' but was actually filmed here a couple of weeks prior to its screening on Good Friday - the first time a seabird colony had played host to the much-loved wildlife programme. 

It wasn't long before…

Puffins still around...but not for long

Red alert, red alert! The puffin breeding season is starting to come to an end, and if you haven't made a trip up here this season to see them, now is your last chance. There are still plenty around for now, with the best views still from Grandstand. But all the puffins and their chicks will be leaving the cliffs and heading out to sea for the winter within the next two weeks.…

Introducing a very special guest writer to the Bempton Cliffs blog. Gracie is officially the youngest volunteer in the RSPB, and has been helping out with running the weekly Bempton Bug Hunts. So without further ado, here she is to tell you all about her experiences!

The Bempton Bug Hunt

When you go hunting for bugs you can use a bug pot or a pooter.  That’s a weird word “pooter”!  It’s a special thing…

The chicks are sat with their mouths wide open and the adult Guillemots have their wings spread out on the cliffs in an attempt to cool down. I am down to only wearing 2 layers of clothing rather than 6 plus thermals. This can only mean one thing....Summer has finally arrived at Bempton!

The Guillemot and Razorbill chicks (otherwise known as Jumplings) have been jumping for a while. There are fewer and fewer of these…

Afternoon,

Time for a quick update on our resident swallows. We think the chicks are about 2 weeks old, and there are at least 5 of them in the nest, one of them being quite a lot smaller than the others. Swallow chicks fledge at around 17-24 days old, so they won't be here for that much longer! You can easily while away 5 minutes just watching the adults swooping up to the nest to feed them, and seeing their little…

If you’re thinking of making a trip up here this month, you’re making an excellent decision! June is probably the best month of the year to visit, as the cliffs are now full of chicks large enough to see with the naked eye. Over the noise of the kittiwakes and gannets, you can just about hear their cheeping sound all over the cliffs.

• Kittiwake chicks are growing and growing and can now be seen with the…

Who wouldn’t be inspired to write a poem after a visit to Bempton Cliffs?

The dramatic white cliffs, the undulating coastline, not to mention the glorious seabird spectacle are enough to persuade even the most pragmatic amongst us to turn to rhyming couplets.

Thank goodness then for  the Bridlington Poetry Festival which gave us the opportunity to encourage visitors to put their thoughts about the reserve down…

Hello!

A few weeks ago, Becky and I were lucky enough to be invited along on one of the Puffin and Gannet Cruises run by the RSPB, and I thought I’d write a post telling you about our mini adventure.

After working up at the centre for the morning, we drove into Bridlington and made our way down to the harbour, quite enjoying feeling like tourists for a change. We’d been advised to wear as many layers as physically…

It has been very exciting here over the last couple of weeks. The birds are well and truly into the breeding season with new chicks appearing every day! Gannet, Kittiwake, Razorbill and lots of Guillemot chicks can be seen from our view points, and we have even had a couple of incredibly rare Puffling sightings!

The other morning one of our volunteers saw a Barn owl disappear into the grass, then re appear with breakfast…

We had a very exciting day yesterday. Countryfile came to do some filming and I had the pleasure of going out on the boat with Ellie Harrison and the crew, joined by Keith Clarkson, Mike Babcock and Steve Race. we couldn't have had more perfect conditions. It was a first for me seeing the dramatic cliffs from the water. Would you believe it, they look even bigger from down there!

To get some good shots of Gannets…

Seabird monitoring research residential volunteer here again.

Its absolutely chick-tastic here at Bempton and Flamborough!

For every new species of chick I saw I swiftly changed my mind as to which one I thought was cutest. I have come to terms with the fact they are all equally adorable. However Guillemot chicks (Jumplings) are definitely up there for me. It is all very exciting when the chicks are hatching. However once…

Hello there,

Fun on the Bank Holiday Weekend

We kicked off the month with a bit of a cold wet start to the Bank Holiday Weekend. But once the sun decided to come out, so did our lovely visitors, with Bank Holiday Monday being declared the busiest day in Bempton Cliffs’ history. Although the puffins were a little elusive that day, we had lots of families enjoying our events and guided walks throughout the weekend.…

So today we spotted our first four Guillemot chicks, along with our first Razorbill chick! These were spotted at Flamborough Head.

However this means we should be expecting little balls of fluff on the cliffs at Bempton very soon. So keep an eye out!

An iPhone was all we had handy. However here are some photos of one of the first Guillemot chicks spotted this Summer

Above: The chick is partially behind the adults…

Hello all.

I’m Sophia and I am this year’s Seabird Monitoring Research Assistant Residential Volunteer. Thankfully my first few weeks were wonderfully sunny, which made for a stunning introduction to the spectacular seabird covered cliffs of Bempton and Flamborough.

So my role is to assist the seabird research assistant with his work. I have several plots to carry out productivity studies on. This is involves…

Hi there!

Laura and Becky here the two new visitor experience interns based here at Bempton until the end of august. We will be sharing our experiences here at this incredible reserve with you all and keeping you up to date with the recent sightings.

The last few weeks have been incredible! The new visitor centre has opened, the birds have been heading back to the cliffs and we are now well in to spring. The usual characters…

Unless you've been living in another country for the past few weeks, you might have heard that we've been planning a bit of a 'do' over Easter - the opening of the £1.3m new seabird centre at Bempton Cliffs. 

So how did it go?   It was glorious!  Even though the weather wasn't.   Despite the famous Bempton Cliffs' mist descending, nothing could dampen our spirits as we welcomed visitors to our…

Springwatch returns with a special just as the countryside is bursting into life.Tune in this Good Friday, 3 April 2015, at 9 pm on BBC2 to see Bempton Cliffs take a starring role.  And, hot off the press, the programme is being repeated on Easter Sunday at 7pm.  So you get two chances to see us on TV.  Here's a run-down of what you can expect from our national team:

Main base

Springwatch at Easter will be based…

‘Would you like to follow me into the bedroom’. This isn’t my usual opening to a meeting about a radio advertising campaign (honest!)  But since our visitor centre closed for redevelopment work, the entire Bempton Cliffs’ team has been squeezed into the small cottage we rent in Bempton village.  And every corner has been commandeered as work space - even the back bedroom.

We locked the doors…

From Good Friday, Mrs P's home will be at the new seabird centre on Bempton Cliffs.  But, as the reserve is still closed, she stopped off in  Bridlington to check out one of the East Coast's favourite holiday spots.  

The first port of call was Bridlington railway station and the famous Station Buffet bar.       

Lucy, the station cat,  took a shine to Mrs P.  

Thankfully, Mrs P's luggage arrived safely…