23 May. Kittiwake on Staple Island, The Farnes The cries of sea birds rose up the cliffs and told of kittiwake. Skylark soared in song-flight , a whitethroat sang in bushes and red campion flowered beside the coastal path. In the distance, a sheer cliff of columnar rock gleamed white with guano. Our nearer cliff rang with the cries of kittiwake, solely kittiwake. Beyond an inlet of the sea a dense mass of foliage swept toward the edge of the kittiwake cliff, shrubs festooned with ivy. At this distance you puzzle it out with binoculars and a powerful camera.
Red campion beside the Northumbria Coastal Path, the vertical columns of distant kittiwake cliff, three images of the near cliff with horizontal strata and kittiwakes nesting on ledges.
Kittiwake nests were strung out along ledge and rock- shelf and stuffed in niches on bands of horizontal strata. Old nests that seem to have endured a winter’s weather, stuck to the rock with guano. Nests the colony returns to each year. White flowers of scurvy grass grew in the cliff face. Down on the waves, kittiwakes plucked up green weed- material to refresh their nests? From their posture it seemed some birds might be on eggs but we were too far off to be sure. Colonial kittiwake, but not dense-packed. I’ve seen kittiwake colonies where every niche was exploited.
That further cliff was tantalising out of reach, for our afternoon’s walk. A farm gate along the Northumbria Coastal Path would be locked at 6.00pm, so we retraced our steps. But the geology of the distant cliff was fascinating. Where kittiwake made their nests on the entablature of the columns of rock guano had dribble down the face cliff . I’d like to return to see that cliff beyond the next corner and to work out how its geology relates to the Whin Sill. And with the massive decline in sea birds, recorded by Adam Nicolson in The Last Sea Bird Summer, I’m aware the enchantment of kittiwake is not something we can take for granted, their breeding success is precarious.
That further cliff was tantalising out of reach, for our afternoon’s walk. A farm gate along the Northumbria Coastal Path would be locked at 6.00pm, so we retraced our steps. But the geology of the distant cliff was fascinating. Where kittiwake made their nests on the entablature of the columns of rock guano had dribble down the face cliff . I’d like to return to see that cliff beyond the next corner and to work out how its geology relates to the Whin Sill. And with the massive decline in sea birds, recorded by Adam Nicolson in The Last Sea Bird Summer, I’m aware the enchantment of kittiwake is not something we can take for granted, their breeding success is precarious.
Left, kittiwake on a coastal cliff ledge, and right on Staple Island, the Outer Farne Islands
On Staple Island, the Outer Farnes, kittiwake are not the exclusive seabirds to nest on cliff and sea stack. The cliff-tops are shared by shag, razorbill, guillemot and puffin with kittiwake preferring to build their nests on ledges on the sheer cliff face. Unlike the stratification I remember seeing at Marwick Head on Orkney where each species was exclusive to a specific tier of the cliff-face.
Somewhere in my photo-archive I have images of a feeding frenzy of kittiwakes on Svalbard where a glacier calved and fresh water met sea-water, giving an abundance of food that attracted thousands of birds. Awesome it was.
We saw no birds flying in with fish, as we did with terns on the Outer Hebrides last year. But that was late June so perhaps it’s too early in the season. The puffin on Farne were said to be excavating and refurbishing their burrows, no pufflings to feed as yet. We stood looking right into shags’ nests and saw their blue eggs and their young, but we couldn’t make out what they were being fed
Somewhere in my photo-archive I have images of a feeding frenzy of kittiwakes on Svalbard where a glacier calved and fresh water met sea-water, giving an abundance of food that attracted thousands of birds. Awesome it was.
We saw no birds flying in with fish, as we did with terns on the Outer Hebrides last year. But that was late June so perhaps it’s too early in the season. The puffin on Farne were said to be excavating and refurbishing their burrows, no pufflings to feed as yet. We stood looking right into shags’ nests and saw their blue eggs and their young, but we couldn’t make out what they were being fed
Puffin on a sea-stack on Staple Island
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