BirdNote® Kittiwake, Kittiwake, Kittiwake!
Air Date: January 27, 2012
The black-legged kittiwake is know for its rhythmic calls. The gull is abundant in the Bering Sea, and, in winter, can also be found along the east and west coasts of North America. Michael Stein has this BirdNote®.
Transcript
GELLERMAN: Well, from fear of bird flu to the delights of bird flight…
BIRDNOTE® THEME
GELLERMAN: You may think a gull is a gull is a gull. But in this BirdNote®, Michael Stein finds one species of gull that’s different.
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE CALLS
STEIN: The cry of the kittiwake rings out across the northern ocean:
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE CALLS OVER THE SOUND OF CRASHING WAVES
STEIN: Kittiwakes were well known to even the earliest northern seafarers. Named for its rhythmic calls, the black-legged kittiwake, as it’s known in North America, is a dapper, oceanic gull. The tips of its pale gray wings look as though they've been dipped in black ink.
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE CALLS
STEIN: Unlike many gulls, kittiwakes spend most of the year at sea and are seldom seen inland. Vast numbers live on the Bering Sea, where they are by far the most abundant gull. Ornithologist Arthur Bent wrote of nesting kittiwakes: “This species is always associated in my mind in its summer home, with the dark, frowning cliffs of the frozen north, which tower for hundreds of feet above the stormy ice-bound seas until lost to sight in shrouds of mist and fog, a safe retreat in which to raise their hardy offspring.”
In winter, black-legged kittiwakes can be found along the West Coast from southern Alaska to Baja California, and along the East Coast from Labrador to Florida.
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE CALLS
GELLERMAN: That’s Michael Stein of BirdNote®. To see some photos of black-legged kittiwakes, wing on over to our website LOE dot org.
