Seabirds arriving

Photo: María H. Tryggvadóttir

Spring is on its way and birds are arriving to prepare for the coming breeding season.

Grímsey island is a bird paradise - 40 km off the coast of Iceland and 20 min flying from Akureyri or 3 hrs with ferry from Dalvík. A hugh amount of birds  nest on the island, one of them is the common murre or common guillemot (Uria aalge) which is a large auk.

The Common murres spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to breed on rocky cliff shores or islands. It breeds in colonies at high densities like on this rock close to the cliffs of Grímsey. They make no nest; their single egg is incubated on a bare rock ledge on a cliff face.
To make sure to have a nesting place the auk arrives as early as in February to secrure its spot on the cliffs.