Another northern pelagic species, come ashore in the Pribilof Islands to nest.
No egg that I saw. And the location is close enough to the top of the cliff that foxes might be able to raid it.
Because foxes were introduced to the island by people- I'm rooting for the birds.
To give an idea of the cliff's steepness- the white at the bottom-left are waves hitting the rocks.
Thanks guys and doll .
I was on St Paul's Island three and a half days, staying in a modest hotel in the one small native town. Because the bird rookeries were several miles away, I rented an old pickup and drove out to the cliffs.
The basalt cliffs were very steep (80-90 degrees), and the dense grass and bushes went out OVER the edge. So I didn't get closer than a few feet from the edge. That made it a small problem finding angles where I could look DOWN at the birds. Mostly I was looking down at an angle. Shooting with an old film Canon and a 400mm lens- on a tripod- I couldn't get as close generally as I would have liked. But the possibility of having the sod give way under me kept me away from the very edge of the cliffs.
"Live to fight another day" and all that .
Charlie
What irony Charlie, I head to your neck of the woods to photograph these guys! There the nests are on bare rock, seeing this guy with some green around him is different. I love the pose, I can almost hear their garbling call.
the first image had black levels in the single digits and white levels at about 253. after the adjustment the black levels were in the double digit and while levels in the 240's. Thus some detail was claimed from the highlights and shadows.
Thanks Morris, Ashley, Ken, Tom and Per.
Yes, the drop was steep, and I tested the security underfoot carefully every time I changed location.
Murres are alcids- which are basically birds that "fly" underwater as they chase their prey.
Puffins and penguins are also alcids.
Penguins no longer need to to fly in the air to get to their nesting areas, so they have lost their ability to fly. Northern hemisphere alcids nest on rocks, so flying in the air is still necessary; but they aren't very good at it. Landing usually means crashing into the cliff and scrambling to their nests (their stall speed is 10-20 mph ).
Takeoffs from the ocean are equally problematic: run and flap and run and flap and hope for liftoff.
Alcids are not only beautiful birds, but watching them take off and land is great fun.
Charlie
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