Do you know what a guillemot sounds like?
| 22 |
| May |
| 2010 |
The guillemot breeding ledges on the west side of Ramsey are busy at the moment, with hundreds of birds lined up to face the marauding gulls. We're also seeing quite a few guillemots rafting around the island (grouped together on the water, not engaging in extreme sports).
Guillemots are rather funny to watch when they fly. Their short wings aren't that good in the air, particularly when it's windy. Quite often they have difficulty getting on to their ledges and may need two or three attempts, sometimes getting their feet on the ledge but not quite landing fully so having to let themselves fall back down in the air and have another go (which can amount to an extreme sport on a blustery day).
Their wings come into their own when they're under water: they fly in the water rather like penguins, and have been seen at impressive depths (in human terms) by divers working on North Sea oil rigs.
The RSPB site has some info on them and, courtesy of wildsounds.com, they have a great recording of guillemots. I just played it for Diesel and he looked very confused.
