First fluffy Fulmar chicks

Hello again,

Warning: This blog contains extremely adorable photos of Seabird chicks.

First Fulmar chick spotted!

I was very excited about this, so I started looking for others. A few Fulmars looked like they were sitting on fluffy cushions. I had to wait a while until the adult fidgeted and a tiny face would appear out of the fluff.

The Fulmars are understandably very protective over this vulnerable ball of fluff. The photo below shows this, when a very brave or silly Guillemot wonders a little too close:

The Guillemot wisely backed away in the end.

Below is the fist one spotted again. With its parent doing a good job making sure nobody comes too close. Here you can see the white dot on the end of the chicks beak, this is its egg tooth, this helps it get its way out of the egg before falling off the beak.

A little update on two other species: The Kittiwakes and Gannets. A few of the Kittiwake chicks have started to fledge. You can spot them fluttering close to the cliffs, learning how to get the hang of their wings. Despite some already fledging, there are still a lot that are not quite ready yet. As this photo below shows: Here there is a fledged Kittiwake above a younger Kittiwake still in the nest.

The majority of the Gannet chicks are comically big now. Though a lot are still covered in incredible amounts of fluff, a few of them have their juvenile feathers coming through: