Living, breathing fulmars!

The precarious nesting habits of northern fulmars. The white specks are the birds. (photo: D. Gaumond)

A timely post, our most recent one on dead Northern fulmars in New York and New Jersey! Diana Gaumond, Seanetter on Cape Cod sent a note after reading the blog:

“We just got back from visiting our daughter who is working in the Orkney Islands [in Scotland] on a joint RSPB/FAME project studying sea birds. Juliet spends her days catching fulmars, shags, razorbills, and others to band and attach or retrieve tracking devices, and she’s loving it.  The techniques used to grab birds off the cliffs are interesting and, according to a knowledgeable Orcadian woman we met, very similar to those used when sea birds were an important food source.  We went on some lovely walks along the coast, seeing lots of dramatic, steep cliffs with many hundreds of nesting sea birds.  May/June is the best time to visit for weather and for bird life.

A charming nesting site: Fulmar on the Orkney islands in northern Scotland (photo: D. Gaumond)

I’ve sent a couple of photos: there’s a cliff one where the little white spots are nesting fulmars, then a couple of closer ones. One fulmar was right near the top of a cliff where we happened to be walking and we could have (but didn’t) pick her up off the nest.

Thanks for your informative blogging!

Diana Gaumond”