There are few sights as splendid as a bird cliff in full flow, and Alkefjellet is about as good as it gets. Sat on the eastern side of Spitsbergen Island, the cliffs are made up of a dolerite intrusion into a sedimentary layer of limestone. The heat of the magma converted the limestone into a quasi-marble layer, and the resulting effect is a kind of reverse Oreo cookie appearance with a dark chocolate filling surrounded by pale cream biscuit. Having said that, the darker dolerite was today almost hidden beneath tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Brunnich’s guillemots. These, the most common members of the guillemot family here in Svalbard, have just arrived for their annual breeding season, a brief two months spent on the rocks before returning to their default habitat of the open ocean. Weighing just 600g, or just over a pound, these delightfully smart in appearance birds sport a feathered dinner suit – white belly and black back with just two cute little swirls of white on the rump. Their voices cry in a joking laugh, belying their vicious way of fighting over the narrow rock ledges where they must find room to nest.