Lurking on the rocks watching as gannets go about their daily business is one of my favourite activities.
Australasian Gannet (Morus serrator)
1/2000, f/13, ISO 1600
EOS Canon 5DsR, Canon EF 200-400L IS USM EXT, focal length 560mm
This young gannet appears to be smiling, which makes me smile. It’s bill looks crazily wide and flexible. Birds’ bills come in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colours but are all basically the same – bony extensions of the jaw bones, covered in a thin layer of keratin which is the same substance that feathers, hair and fingernails are made from.
Australasian Gannets use their bills for catching food, feeding their young, preening, playing catch with odd items including seaweed, and fighting. I photographed a significant wound on an adult gannet’s neck when it had lost a fight with another gannet. I could only hope that the salty seawater would have helped keep the wound clean until it healed.
This young gannet still has a crop of downy feathers on its head and some on its underparts. The swirls and shades of it’s feathers look fantastic to me, as does the rocky perch where it somehow manages to look comfortable.
Happy birding
Kim
~ Thank you for visiting and commenting
~ If you would like a weekly email letting you know that lirralirra has been updated please use the ‘subscribe’ box above right
A visit to the rookery is indeed a magical experience! Nice shot!
Totally magical – I wish it was a few hours closer!
I always find that down as endearing as human baby feet.
Gorgeous portrait.
And many thanks for your generous comment on my last post.
What a gorgeous, and very individual, analogy. Your previous post was remarkably moving EC, you are incredibly talented and insightful.