Interesting Seabird Facts
A few interesting facts and observations I have come across. These were originally the descriptions on my instagram posts (found here), but I thought I would collect them into a single blog post.
Rathlin island is home to the largest guillemot colony in the UK and Ireland, with over 150,000 individuals. With so many birds, real estate on the sea stacks are limited. If you think your house is small, think again; guillemots are one of the most densely breeding bird species in the world with records of >70 nest sites per square meter.
Another interesting thing about the guillemot (there are many many interesting things, but I’m limiting myself) is their egg shape. If you think of chicken eggs, they’re not oval but pointed at one end. Because of this shape, if you tried to roll the egg around, you’d notice it goes in a circle. Guillemot eggs (I recommend looking pictures up online) are much more pointed, and when rolled, turn in a much tighter circle. With most guillemot nest sites being on tight cliff ledges, it was thought that the pyriform (pear-shaped) egg shape meant the egg would roll in a circle without falling off the cliff. However, this was disproven by a study which showed that the pointed shape prevents the egg from slipping and moving in the first place on steep angles. Guillemot eggs are more stable by being so pointed!
These incredible birds lay their eggs directly on the rock ledges, some only inches wide, with their chicks having natural instincts to stay away from the cliff ledges. At only 3 weeks old, still unable to fly, they fling themselves off their nest, some up to 80m high, into the sea below, where the father stays with them for weeks teaching them to hunt. This particular guillemot is a bridled form as you can see with the white 'monocle' around the eye. It is thought that this white mark is the physical representation of a gene which makes the guillemot more acclimatised to the cold. The further north you go, the higher the chance a guillemot will be of the bridled form.
Fulmars can smell dimethyl-sulphate, the chemical scent given off from phytoplankton being fed on by krill. Expecting the krill to be fed on by fish, the fulmar can use this chemical scent to find prey whilst out at sea. Sadly, decaying plastic gives off the same scent so these precious birds are prone to consuming plastic and microplastics.
The kittiwakes are generally the loudest residents of the cliffs. They are always calling to one another that they’re hungry or their neighbour is too close, and who knows what else. These two in the picture, for whatever reason, got particularly annoyed with each other and decided to take to the skies to settle their dispute. They were squawking angrily, occasionally going in for a physical attack, whilst spiralling around each other slowly descending towards the waves below. Eventually, as they were nearing a watery end to their argument, they broke off from each other and went their separate ways. Did one of them ‘win’? Who knows.
With high winds that regularly batter the cliffs, seabirds, such as this razorbill, are often blown higher up than normal. This allows the public at the viewing platform, 70m above the sea, to get a perfect view of these birds as they gracefully control themselves in the turbulence. It also gives the perfect opportunity to get close-up photos of them in flight!
Written on 2nd Mar 2024