At the Edge (Razorbill)

​Cape St Mary’s in Newfoundland hosts one of the largest breeding colonies of seabirds I have ever seen. Thousands of Northern Gannets, Murres (aka Turrs by the locals), Kittiwakes, Black-backed gulls, Black Guillemots, and my favorite, Razorbills (aka Tinkers to the locals), call these cliffs home during the summer.

From where I stood on the edge of the cliff, you can see gannets nesting on the top of a sea stack that is about 15 yards away and is at the same level of the cliff height. Typically, all the birds stay away from the area where people stand, but while I was there taking photos of the gannets, a razorbill came to my side, on a part of the cliff that was a little below me and only about 5 feet away.

I had a sense it did not expect me to be standing there as I was using a large rock as wind cover. But once it saw me, it came a little closer to investigate and then stayed around when it probably realized my camera and I weren’t going to eat it.

I am not a seabird expert, but it seems like if one seabird lands - puffin, seagull, etc. - more soon follow. And sure enough, a few razorbill friends came and landed by my razorbill, and for at least a half hour, razorbills were coming and going from their spot. I must have taken over a thousand photos of just backs of razorbills.

In breeding plumage, Razorbills are very sleek with all black on their wings, head and neck, except for a few lines of white. And they are mostly white on their front with black/gray feet. Though I find their black and white appearance striking, what really stands out about the Razorbill is what you can’t see unless they open their beaks - the bright sunny orange color inside their beaks - one of my favorite colors. Quite surprising from such a black and white bird. I think it’s that surprise of color that makes me admire them so much - the “there is always more than what meets the eye” view.

Art has a way of revealing that more… Though it’s mostly used to share what’s beautiful, it has the power to share what isn’t so obvious about what you can see. For this painting, rather than focus on the orange or what makes me smile about them, I focused on the experience of “hanging out” with razorbills on a cliff, and the colors that resonated my experience. Which was not black and white. 

At the edge - Razorbill. Mixed media on canvas. 10” Available
Razorbills spend their summers breeding on the cliffs in the North Atlantic and during winter, they will migrate south off shore. ​Some years they have been seen as far south as Florida and in the Mediterranean!