The Black-legged Kittiwakes are at least three weeks ahead of normal schedule. Locals can’t remember to have seen Black-legged Kittiwakes fighting for nesting places in the bird cliffs along the Barents Sea coast as early as March before.
The first birds arrived in the area already in February and are now preparing for nesting, reports the newspaper Aftenposten.
The birds can be seen in the cliffs in Jarfjorden, just some few kilometres west of Norway’s border to Russia in the north. It is still cold winter in the area with lots of snow and ice in the bird cliffs.
-It is a biological mystery that the Black-legged Kittiwakes suddenly changes their traditionally exact dates of arrival, says Kjell Einar Erikstad, a senior researcher with the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research interviewed by Aftenposten.
Erikstad can’t give any good answers why the birds suddenly arrive so early as this year.
During the last 30 years, the amount of Kittiwakes along the coast of Norway is down by 70 to 80 percent.
The Black-legged Kittiwake breeds in large colonies on cliffs and is very noisy on the breeding ground.
