Baby Gannets

Regular readers will know that we’ve just welcomed baby twin girls to our family (shivers of delight). I’m very baby oriented at the moment, so here are a couple of young gannets that kept their parents nice and busy.

Australasian Gannet  (Morus serrator)
1/2500, f/14, ISO 1600
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

I absolutely love visiting Point Danger at Portland in Victoria to spend time shivering on the exposed rocks and being liberally splatted with copious amounts of gannet whitewash. I grew up being told it was lucky to be pooped on by a bird but I’d never imagined quantities quite like the amounts expelled by gannets.

It’s often tricky to get an image of an Australasian Gannet at a colony without getting several other birds, or parts of birds, also in the picture. It’s great to have a long lens to focus on a distant bird in the brief, and often rare, moment that I get a clear view.

The young bird above still has quite a bit of its original fluff on its head, underparts and even on its wings but new feathers are sprouting. New feathers begin as pin feathers, which are just visible as keratin sheaths peeking out from the fluff. Young birds usually wait quietly for parents to return with food and gannets are no exception, unless they are squabbling with their neighbours. I would have said that young birds always wait quietly if I hadn’t witnessed nestling Eastern Yellow Robins calling incessantly while their parents were foraging, it made me so concerned for their safety.

Australasian Gannet  (Morus serrator)
1/2500, f/10, ISO 800
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

Once the parent bird returns the racket begins! Young gannets beg noisily and tap the parent’s bill until the regurgitation process begins – which makes me glad I’m not a gannet.

Australasian Gannet  (Morus serrator)
1/3200, f/10, ISO 800
Canon 5DsR, Canon 200-400 L IS USM EXT

The process is noisy and frenetic. To capture these images I needed super fast shutter speeds of 1/2500th and 1/3200th of a second. Looking at the image above I realise that it could also look like the adult is attacking the youngster.

I think gannets are stunning birds, their colours are exquisite and their flying (and pooping) skills are extraordinary.

Happy birding

Kim

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