Svalbard: Fjortende Julibreen – Bird Cliffs

Frortende Julibukta aka 14th of July Bay (named by Duke of Monaco for the French National Day, Bastille Day) is lined up with tall cliffs, filled with bird colonies – puffins, guillemots, kittiwakes, seagulls, and other. Getting up close and personal in zodiac, we watched for hours how colorful puffins – flying potatoes – landed and took off from the cliff tops, or swam in the water right by the sides of zodiac. Guillemots clustered on vertical cliffs just below the puffins, in densely packed colonies. And kittiwakes and gulls flew overhead – they next on the very top of the cliffs.