The first flight of the Kittiwake

Kittiwakes are one of my favourite birds. I love their delicate bills, their dipped-in-ink wings and their streamlined bodies.

And their “Kittiwaaaak” call echoing around the sea caves is eery and magnificent.

We’re watching the juveniles on their first flights today. They’re a little less well put together in their sartorial elegance.

These are the lucky ones which have managed to evade the Great Skuas hunting along the cliffs.

We’re there for several hours, enjoying the sounds and smells of the colony. I take hundreds of photographs. The light is relatively low because there’s a gentle mist hanging over the cliffs and visibility is poor. It’s when this juvenile Kittiwake wheels and turns in the air in a balletic pirouette that I know I’ve got a photograph I love: