Bear Island
Wraiths of cloud and fog clinging to the shoulders of moody, precipitous cliffs? An insistent and incessant cacaphony of seabirds? Dark seas with a lively manner and a bouncy slosh? Then we must be at the southern tip of Bear Island for a sensational Zodiac cruise.
This morning we embarked our small rubber boats for a tour along the base of these crowded avian tenements. The noise of the birds was impressive, and there was so much activity to take in. The black-legged kititwakes were the most conspicuous, but they were out numbered by the guillemots, both Common and Brunnich’s. It’s fledging time for the still-flightless guillemot chicks, which must leap from their nest sites on the cliffs, flapping furiously on inexperienced wings as they plummet down to the ocean. We saw some of the many young birds that survived what must be a very unsatisfactory inaugural flight experience. In a few more weeks, they will master the bullet-like flight of their parents, making a mockery of their penguinesque appearance. But not all will reach that stage, and our path was littered with the carcasses of the many chicks whose entrance into the post-nest world had not gone so smoothly. They had become prey to the glaucous gulls and great skuas which patrol these misty cliffs.
