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"The little auk, also known as the dovekie, emerges as a sentinel species in monitoring Arctic environmental shifts," says Dr. Anders Mosbech, co-author from Aarhus University.

When almost in despair there came seal after seal, and scores of arctic dovekies, or little auks in winter plumage.

A dovekie, in its white winter plumage, and two seals have been seen lately.

"These individuals are likely resting on icebergs and ice floes and hunting the seabirds, such as black guillemots, dovekies, and species of gull, that are using the same habitat," said Dr Burnham.

It proved to be a desolate, ice-capped, rocky islet, almost destitute of vegetation and inhabited only by dovekies, who nested in the inaccessible cliffs adjoining the discharging glaciers.