Runde, Norway

Runde is the southernmost of the big Norwegian bird islands. With its 160 inhabitants the island belongs to the bridge- and fishery municipality Herøy. Runde has an exceptional variety of species - in fact all our sea-birds nesting in colonies represented. Most numerous is probably the tourists great favourite: the puffin. Difficult to count where it hides its nest in screens and holes in the ground. However there are thousands of pairs, perhaps hundreds of thousands. The kittiwake makes up the second giant colony with about 50.000 pairs. Buzzing and screaming they leave their unmistakable mark on the bird cliff. Biggest of all the inhabitants of the bird cliff is the beautiful gannet, blending white with orange lines across the head. The colony at Rundebranden is the biggest and oldest in Norway, one of only about 40 gannet colonies in the world.

Three samples of an overwhelming bird life. However, there is more: The only common guillemot colony in South Norway, the country's oldest and largest fulmar colony, the biggest collection of skua, the largest but one shag colony in the country, razorbill, black guillemot, eider duck and shellduck. Eagles, falcons and hawks visit the island for hunting purposes, whereas the raven lives on anbundance of eggs and young birds. The deer graze in steep hillsides and green fields, in the sea there are seals and sea hogs - and fish to the great delight of many more than the "feathered".

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