Runde is an island in southern Norway, some 25 kilometres to the west of Ålesund. Runde’s south and northeast shores have flat ground and a few houses for the roughly 150 regular inhabitants. On the west side of Runde, and facing the open ocean, are impressive cliffs with caves. Here one finds Norway’s southernmost accessible nesting sites of Atlantic Puffins, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Northern Gannets, and Common Guillemots. Several hundred thousand birds come here. Among the roughly 80 species nesting on Runde even White-tailed Eagles can be found. The different colonies can be seen from the sea, as well as hiking up the mountain. One of the largest seal colonies in the region is found on islets 4 kilometres northeast of Runde. These islets as well as a small portion of Runde’s east and entire west coast are part of Norway’s Ramsar site 2164. A scientific station does not only work in seabird monitoring, but also in marine biology, rocky shore monitoring, oceanography and meteorology.
"A Zodiac cruise along the coast admiring the stunning geology of the the island in search for a large colony of Gannets. We will be keeping our eyes open for Atlantic puffins, White-tailed eagles, Great skuas and many other bird species of the area".
Peter Harrison was apparently a well known bird author and painter. he had updated his definitive work on Seabirds recently, and was keen to sell as many copies as possible. He was an entertaining but completely over the top , "after dinner speaker" and it was difficult to separate fact from fiction in his talks
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