The Seabird City at Bempton Cliffs - 16th June 2026

With Mts U taking a well earned minibreak in Sicily I arranged to spend three days with my twitching pal Mark R who lives in a village that lies below the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. From here we planned visits to first the RSPB's Bempton Cliffs reserve in East Yorkshire and then on another day to the Farne Islands in Northumberland.

But first, on my arrival we spent an evening up on the moors driving along some of the deserted narrow roads that cross the moors in search of Red Grouse and any other moorland birds we could find.Using the car as a mobile hide we found the grouse, although they frustratingly always remained partially hidden amongst the heather and I could not help but reflect that in less than two months time they will be flying for their lives from people paying vast sums of money for the privilege of gunning them down, so maybe it was prudent for them to remain circumspect and suspicious of our presence.

Disgracefully these moors, a National Park incidentally, are notorious for the coninued illegal slaughter by gun or poison of any bird of prey that is found here, all so there will be more grouse available to be shot.

This is the time of year when many birds have young and we found a recently htached Lapwing chick wandering by the side of a thankfully rarely used moorland road. A parent bird was sort of in attendance but showed little concern about our presence and largely left the chick to its own devices.I was relieved when the chick went back into the cover of the grass beyond the road where it would be less vulnerable to any number of natural predators.

Lapwing chick

Curlews and Oystercatchers perched on the dry stone walls guarding chicks in the heather and moor grass and a male Northern Wheatear flicked along a wall, then with a flash of its black and white tail disappeared across the road into the vastness of moorland beyond 

Male Northern Wheatear

We came across a family of European Stonechats, the young fully fledged and now in their speckled juvenile plumage which will soon be moulted. I have a great fondness for stonechats having written a book about them, the study of which had engendered many happy experiences and memories on the South Downs of Sussex, so it was nice to see them in an alternative habitat.As is their wont they perched conspicuously on top of thin twigs, flirting wings and tails, calling to each other and still very much a family

Juvenile male European Stonechat

As evening drew nigh the light began to fade and the wind blew cold into the open car window so we left the moors to their brooding isolation and returned to Mark's house in the village below

It is a two hour drive to the RSPB's Bempton Cliffs reserve but next morning was a pleasure as the sun was shining and the countryside was  at its best as we headed, mid morning, southwards past Whitby and then around the forever busy Scarborough, both towns inundated with holidaymakers at this time of year.

We looked forward to the reserve at Bempton being quieter but we were in for a shock.The long approach road to the reserve car park was occupied by a tail back of cars queuing to get in.With lack of foresight we had left our arrival too late and had no one but ourselves to castigate

Bempton with its huge cliffs and thousands of breeding seabirds is a very popular place to visit n Spring and Summer  but now was doubly so due to Springwatch basing one of its well known presenters, Iolo Williams here and inevitably the power of celebrity and media exposure meant everyone now wanted to share Iolo's experience.

The car park was full as was the overflow car park but somehow we managed to find a space .The Visitor Centre was, as we feared, heaving with people milling around the shop and cafe or standing about doing not much of anything.

I do not cope with crowds that well especially when birding  so we rapidly made our way out of the centre and down to the cliffs but even here the viewpoints, built right onto the cliff edge were crammed with visitors. It was not going to get any better so we had to zone out our fellow humans and concentrate on the birds along the cliffs and out to sea.

Today one seabird held a particular attraction for us 

Northern Gannets.

Bempton is the only mainland Northern Gannet colony in Britain and as a consequence of it being easily accessed  with spectacular viewpoints constructed to view the  birds up close is rightly hugely popular with birders, photographers and public alike

And what an experience it provides. The sight of thousands of Gannets, Razorbills, Guillemots and Kitiwakes crammed onto the cliffs on impossibly narrow ledges, in certain places literally metres from you is without exaggeration a marvel of nature.The ever present growling of gannets and auks provides an endless sound track as if on a loop to accompany the multitude of birds arriving and departing from the cliffs, the constant movement and sound and the faint, sweet sickly smell of guano wafting up on the wind from below combine to bring an almost surreal sensory overload.

Staple Newk is our go to viewpoint of choice, the furthest and northernmost viewpoint from the Visitor Centre and that overlooks the main part of the Gannet colony many metres below.

Looking down on the Gannet colony from the viewpoint

I can easily stand here for hours and never feel bored watching the ceaseless, ever changing sight of seabirds coming and going from the cliff faces and today that is what we did, resolving to photograph the Gannets which come very close, either to cruise past the viewpoint or settle on the cropped turf of the cliff top nearby.

Northern Gannets are big, our largest seabird and mightily impressive as they fly past the viewpoint or stall in mid air to drop down and settle on the cliff top. Having visited Bempton many times in the breeding season I have more than enough images of flying Gannets so resolved today to go for variety in the form of Gannets doing other things such as displaying or interacting with one or another.

It was also noticeable that most of the Gannets around the viewpoint today were fourth year birds, told by the variable remnants of black in their secondaries, coverts and tails but otherwise indistinguishable from an adult. 

Gannets breed in their fifth year so these birds were enacting a dress rehearsal if you like for the main event next year by cruising along the cliffs prospecting potential nest sites or checking out others already breeding. Some even collected feathers or grass, again with no intention of nesting but getting into the swing of things for next year. 

One second year bird flew back and fore endlessly with some lurid green netting rope in its bill but will not breed for another three years

Northern Gannets winter in the Bay of Biscay and do not usually return to their natal colony until they are at least three or four years old  but I noticed there were a few second year birds milling around in the throng, their mixture of brown immature and white adult plumage creating a marbled effect, distinctive and not unattractive and highly variable from individual to individual.

We spent several happy hours photographing and  watching the Gannets but eventually my interest began to wane so I switched to testing my camera skills photographing the Razorbills and Guillemots hurtling like stubby missiles back and fore amongst the confetti of wheeling white Gannets. 

Guillemot

Razorbills

The occasional Puffin sometimes came into view and is what many visitors coming to Bempton, hope to see but they are relatively scarce here and often elusive.

By five of clock the Visitor Centre had closed and consequently most visitors had departed and those such as us that remained had the reserve virtually to themselves.

In all honesty it was a wrench to leave and I was reluctant to foresake this forever changing seabird marvel but we had to accept it really was time to go. but not before paying our respects to the Tree Sparrows that unlike my home county of Oxfordshire where they have become extinct continue to thrive here.