These are a few photos from a visit to RSPB Bempton Cliffs on Wednesday 20 May 2026.
The header image is of a line up of Guillemots with a lone nesting Razorbill trapped in an alcove.
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Gannet
Though the Puffins are the cutest it is the Gannets that are the main attraction for me. Spectacular birds.
I didn’t see any diving for food but one thing you can see in the photos is that they don’t have external nostrils like many birds. Their nostrils are inside their mouths. This is assumed to be so that when they hit the water at speed they dont get water forced into their lungs.
Birds were still pulling at the grass and other vegetation to line their nests so I was a little surprised to see immature Gannet flying around. I did think that the immature Gannet didn’t show themselves until later in the season. The various amounts of black on the wings indicates their age. Going from black through stages of black and white piano key layout to white with black tips.
Over the years quite a bit of rope and fishing net have been brought in to be part of their nests.
The last photo shows a Gannet with egg – the one towards the top right. Note the size of the egg compared to the size of the bird and then check the photo of the Guillemot with egg.
Razorbill, Puffin, & Guillemot
I quite like the straight on view of the Razorbill. Was that look used for some of the helmets in Star Wars?
There were a few Puffins around. They are cute but to my mind their eyes make them look so sad.
They are quite small when compared to the Gannet but look at the size of that Guillemot egg compared to the size of the bird.
Fulmar, Kittiwake, Shag, & Herring Gull
Gannets are probably the most numerous followed by the Guillemots and Razorbills then the Puffins. There are also a lot of rather smart looking Kittiwake but while I was there most of them were out on the water.
Quite a fe Fulmar were nesting and one of them was having a go at some Guillemots that were getting too close.
Shag and Herring Gull were also around.
Dolphins & Views
The cliffs are spectacular.
It was quite exciting to see three, if not four, Bottlenaose Dolphins to pass by. They were quite close in.
Birds
These are the other birds spotted on the reserve. It is not only see birds at Bempton Cliffs. There is a decent sized area that is planted and managed for birds.
The Sedge Warbler, Tree Sparrow and Linnet were the favourites, ones that I don’t see very often.
Track
The squiggles show where I wandered taking the photos. You can move around the map by dragging, you can also zoom in or out, or make the map full screen.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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