{"id":1980,"date":"2011-07-05T23:07:09","date_gmt":"2011-07-05T22:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1980"},"modified":"2013-11-09T12:29:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:29:34","slug":"kittiwakes-at-seaford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/kittiwakes-at-seaford\/","title":{"rendered":"Kittiwakes at Seaford"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->On my recent journeys between Brighton and Eastbourne I&#39;ve driven past a sign to a &#39;seabird colony viewing station&#39;. I decided to check it out today. The regular signs pointing to the &#39;Kittwakes&#39; gave a handy clue as to what I might find. The photos can give only the barest impression of just how many birds were crammed on the cliff.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112377.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112393.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112561.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>This is possibly the largest breeding colony in the south of England. From the viewing station almost every part of the cliff face had become home to the small gulls. The kittiwakes are among the most marine of all the seabirds, spending virtually the entire year at sea, visiting land only to breed. This year&#39;s clutch will survive three sea-borne seasons before they fully mature and return to land.<\/p>\n<p>You can see the developing wing of one of the chicks in the centre of this shot.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112408.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Some of the many adults circling around the cliffs.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112518.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112550.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>If you look closely you can see several chicks in these next shots. They have small dark markings around the neck and head, and open beaks (usually!).<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112537.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/kittiwake_0507112547.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>The breeding site will be active for a few more weeks, and then by mid August all will be (relatively) quiet again. Until next year.<br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><i>Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[754],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-water-birds-birds-2","tag-kittiwake","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}