If I said to you that the city of Newcastle was one of the UK’s prime wildlife spots, you might think I’d had one too many ciders. But this year I made it to a place there that’s been on my travel list for a long time, and it was so easy to get to and so wonderful that I was surprised there weren’t queues out the door to experience it. It was, of course, the kittiwakes of the BALTIC- a slice of maritime wilderness right in the centre of the Toon.
Unlike our other gulls, kittiwakes are still very much an oceanic seabird. During the winter they roam the Atlantic Ocean, only coming back to land to nest. Up until around 40 years ago, the only place to see a kittiwake was out at sea or on the sheer, steep cliffs that host the UK’s large seabird colonies; but then, something remarkable started to happen. A few birds followed the Tyne river inland and started nesting on the buildings of Newcastle’s quayside. More followed, and over time the furthest inland kittiwake colony in the world grew to over 700 pairs. Nobody’s quite sure why, of all places, they chose Newcastle – and over the years the birds have had a fairly tough ride, with the demolition of various buildings forcing them to move around.
One of the surviving buildings, however, was the BALTIC- once a huge flour mill, now a modern art museum. What’s remarkable about the building isn’t really the fact that the kittiwakes nest on it- they’re not particularly fussy and it plays its role of faux cliff very convincingly- but rather it’s the fact that you can get the lift up to the 4th floor, walk over onto the balcony, and get views of the colony that it would normally be impossible to have unless you yourself were a seabird. The kittiwakes are completely nonplussed about having spectators, and get on with the business of nest-building, arguing, egg laying and raising their adorable little fluff balls at eye-level without a second glance over to the viewing area. This year we visited them twice- once in mid-May, when nesting had only just begun and the ledges were full of pairs gently nuzzling each other (see intensely cute evidence below)- and once in mid-July, when the chicks were almost fully grown and the parents were looking decidedly more frazzled.
I’ve visited a fair amount of seabird colonies this year, and would rank the kittiwakes of the BALTIC as up there with the very best of them; better, even, because the opportunity to get that close without causing any disturbance is very rare indeed. You sit there on a ledge with them- smelling the same things, hearing the same things, sharing the vertiginous view down to the river, and keeping an eye on the huge herring gulls which perch unnervingly close. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to #kittiwakelife, and the fact that it doesn’t cost a penny- well, that’s something very special indeed.
N.B. I couldn’t post about kittiwakes without also highlighting the sad fact that several of these chicks get entangled each year in poorly monitored netting that tries to stop them from nesting on several other buildings in the town centre. Nets are entirely legal, as long as they are properly monitored. Tyne Kittiwakes has been providing updates on birds trapped this season- I’d recommend you give them a follow if you want to find out more (http://www.facebook.com/pg/Tyne-Kittiwakes-635269083218876/posts/)
