'The unmistakable call' - celebrating the welcome return of gannets to RSPB site near Bridlington
They’re back! At the end of January, we saw our first gannet on the cliffs, an early return to inspect the nest from last year.
A week later and more birds are starting to return with pairs starting to utter the unmistakable guttural call of welcome as one of the pair returns.
We have 19000 breeding pairs of gannets on the cliffs by April, later joined by non-breeding birds looking for a potential nest site for when they are fully grown. RSPB Bempton Cliffs is the only place in England you can see these birds up close, and it attracts visitors from far and wide, making use of local hotels and facilities.
The guillemots are also appearing in greater numbers but for now they are mainly seen just offshore, forming large ‘rafts’ of birds, soon to be joined by close relatives razorbill and of course puffins in March and April.
The seasonality of nature never fails to bring joy and as the seabirds return our visitors will increase, wowed by the spectacle of half a million birds by late June.
As early spring arrivals gather the fields are still home to our wintering short eared owls, sharing the space with our resident barn owls as they hunt for voles over the grassland we manage for wildlife. As the days lengthen, local photographers catch the dawn light in the hope of an owl flyby.
Skylarks also like these fields in Spring, and we are starting to see their return on site. Nestled in the scrubby undergrowth is one of the hardest birds to find, a winter visitor from Scandinavia, hunting at night with a very long bill to probe the soft ground for worms and beetles.
This is the woodcock, it has some of the best camouflage of any animal and makes good use of it during the day, but our volunteers are good at spotting them now and recently we’ve had six birds close to the visitor centre. Like a large snipe and with eyes that give an almost 360 degree vision it’s always a treat to see them.
If you want to find out more about Bempton in Winter, pop up and see us or join one of our walks on the events pages on the website. www.rspb.org.uk/bemptoncliffs