It is a dull, cold steel grey, sort of day. Feeling very much like winter is settling in and the landscape was blanketed with snow this morning. Most of our migrants have left and soon just our resident birds will remain. Of course the Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) will stick it out to the bitter end of summer/fall. The American Pipits (Anthus spinoletta) have all left and I haven’t seen a Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) in a week or so. There are a few gulls left, mostly immature Glaucous Gulls (Larus hyperboreus) however I saw an adult Iceland Gull (Larus glaucoides) amongst them today. But the Northern Fulmars (Fulmaris glacialis) will be here until Arctic Bay freezes, in about three weeks or so.
The Fulmars are the only Procellariiforms (tube noses, the order that includes albatross, petrals and shearwaters) that inhabit this area, and like the rest of the order are true sea birds. They will follow the receding open water and winter in Baffin Bay, the Davis Strait and the North Atlantic, although a few will stay in a polynya if they find it.
They are a relatively long lived birds, upwards of thirty years or so, and don’t mature sexually until they reach about eight years. There are several large colonies around, the largest and closest is on the cliffs north of Ship Point on the east coast of Admiralty Inlet, near where we made camp on our spring trip to the Floe Edge. They nest on the bare ground of the cliff faces, which of course offers protection for them from predators such as Arctic Fox.
Fulmars, however, don’t just rely on location for protection, they also make use of chemical/biological weapons. The birds store food, in the form of a sticky oily foul smelling liquid which they regurgitate to feed their young. They are also capable of vomiting this liquid, accurately, over a fair distance at predators and other Fulmars. It can even kill avian predators if enough of it sticks to their feathers to prevent them from flying, an important consideration at a cliff site.
Fulmars have been in the news recently, as a study has shown that lakes frequented by them are far more polluted than other birdless lakes. Nuthatch at bootstrap analysis has written on the study, which found many persistent organic chemicals in the lakes, transported in the excrement of the Fulmars.
I enjoy watching the Fulmars soar and wheel, and they delight in a stiff breeze, such as there was today. Far too soon, they will be following that stiff breeze, and retreating from the frozen ocean that will drive them south. Far, far too soon.
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fascinating life history of a most interesting bird Clare- thanks for sharing this one 🙂