The Birds Of St. George

We sat on the edge of a high cliff on the island of St. George facing north to watch the return of the least auklets that live in a great colony among the boulders. These little seafowls, called by the native Aleuts "choochkies" (pronounced chewtskie), are plump in body, but not much larger than an English sparrow. You see them sitting on the rocks of the boulder beaches, bowing and chattering. Having their legs at the end of their bodies, they prop themselves upright on their little webbed feet and walk around like little old men. During the day they feed off at sea, and now we were watching the flocks returning home.

Out at sea a band of from fifty-to-two or three hundred would beat along into sight, driving low over the water against the wind. When near the island under the lea of a cliff, they rose just high enough to clear the top, and swished past our ears like the sound of a whip drawn quickly through the air. For an hour I lay low in the grass with watch in hand and counted flock after flock in rapid succession passing at the rate of six hundred to several thousand birds a minute.

At times I could have reached up and grabbed birds out of the air. Occasionally, as a flock—perhaps tired after the long flight—lifted just over the rim of the cliff, a strong gust would hold them as against an invisible wall. Down the flock would sink again in the protection of the cliff and swing along to storm the barrier at another point on their homeward flight.

We were not the only watchers, for at the edge of the cliff the keen eyes of a fox were only half hidden among the grass. The birds that live on these northern islands are always on the firing line. There are three species of auklets, of which the choochkie is the most abundant. The paroquet auklet—a little larger than the least auklet—is called "Baillie Brushkie" by the Aleuts. The crested auklet—called "canooskie" ("little captain")—is well tamed, because he has a queer little crest of feathers that sticks out of his forehead and curves around toward his nose.

All of the auklets find homes in the crevices of the rocks where foxes find most difficulty in reaching them, but in going to and from their homes the birds must ever be alert.

With all the birds on the island, it is a case of the survival of the fittest. A fox may be crouched behind every brown rock or green tussock of grass. The village hen yard is well guarded with a six-foot wire netting, but I saw a fox just outside watching with eagle eye the doings within. One evening at feeding time the gate of the henyard was accidentally left unlocked. The next morning St. George had not a single chicken left, and the foxes looked surprisingly plump.

By: davidbunch

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