Arctic Adventures: Invasion of the Birds: Day 5 Part 1

6/21/2012 Thursday

Birds everywhere in the air.

Every ledge is covered with birds.

We awoke to a 5:30am announcement that we had arrived at Kapp Fanshawe (Cape Fanshawe) in which the high cliffs of Alkefjellet (Mount Guillemot) were swarming with birds. We had arrived at the bird cliffs. The same as those shown on “Frozen Planet.” The ship moved right along the cliffs allowing me to take a bazillion pictures and record many video clips. The cacophony of about 400,000 birds is extraordinary and they are diving to and fro over your head and everywhere. It is really quite graceful rather than Alfred Hitchcock creepy, as you might expect. I had expected a terrible stench from the bird guano, but the wind was just right today and the smell was pretty mild. Most of the birds are black and white, resembling a penguin, and are called Brunnich’s Guillemots or thick-billed murres. They dive and swim underwater like a penguin, but, unlike penguins, can also fly in the air. They lay beautifully patterned eggs of varying colors right on the bare cliff ledge as they don’t build a nest. The shape of the egg is more pointed at one end (kind of like a top) causing them to roll in a circle rather than off the ledge. The smaller gulls on the cliffs are Kittiwakes, named because it sounds a bit like it is calling “kitty wake.” Most are gray and white with black wing tips. The kittiwakes actually makes a nest for its eggs, as do the large Glaucous Gulls. When the guillemot chicks are just 21 days old, they jump off the cliff to the sounds of their fathers calling below and hope they miss the solid ground and land in the ocean. This event is shown on the “Frozen Planet” series and many of the chicks bounce across the land and some become victim to the Arctic fox. Oh…that food chain.