Fulmar on the nest

Fulmar spend much of their lives way out in the challenging wild windswept seas of the north Atlantic for long periods where they are capable of drinking salt water to survive by expelling excess salt from their 'tubed'  nostrils,  so it is always good to see them when they make it back to the coast to breed,

Yesterday afternoon I spent some time watching them displaying at earthy cliff nest sites on the south coast, Two pairs of birds were in a reasonably close but shadowed position creating rather difficult exposure conditions but it was a pleasure to get the opportunity to work with them,

The birds were all quite active and displaying their 'Albatross' like retuning long lost mate displays on a regular basis every time that one or the other came back to their chosen nest site, These displays included neck stretching and waving and open beck fencing in unison,

In the last image below a third bird has arrived at one pairs nest site and started to display,  The female looked a little interested but her partner was having none of it,   Strange that !!