SHOT FROM THE FILE

Kittiwake, Oh Kittiwake

Kittiwake-4

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According to Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology, the Black-legged Kittiwake is a pelagic species of gull usually found far out in the northern seas unless it is breeding and rearing its young.

In my copy of Arthur Cleveland Bent’s Life Histories of North American Gulls and Terns, the author states “The ordinary cry of the Kittiwake suggests its name …”

Kittiwake, Oh Kittiwake
What a strange noise you do make
Your voice does cause one double-take
It sounds a bit like your namesake

~ Poem and Kittiwake captures, Kittiwake, Oh Kittiwake © Jerry L. Ferrara. Kittiwake images recorded in Iceland and Norway.