I am glad I took first pictures of northern gannets, unluckily the gannet passed near only once and presented pictures do not reflect the charm of this bird. Let's hope that there will be an opportunity to take dynamic shots of gannets in flight when they dive in water hunting. Gannets belong to the family Pelecanidae. Their weight can reach up to 4 kilograms and a wingspan up to 1.8 meters. Unfortunately in Iceland gannets’ colonies have their seats on inaccessible islands, and during my stay in Iceland we should have to organize an independent expedition, but for that there was lack of time. The name of this bird (British English informal -someone who eats a lot; Polish – the fool) was given unfairly very much. In Polish it has been named so due to a very strong emotional bonds with offspring, because of which the bird could not escape, even in the face of death, in danger from hunters. Such incomprehensible to their executioners behavior led to give them the name from the fool.
Last munute news 08/2015
Finally, an opportunity arose to do some changes in the gallery of gannets. Quite unexpectedly, because the aim of the expedition were procellariiformes. Meanwhile even from the deck of a ferry to the to the Isles of Scilly I was able to take first pictures. Unfortunately, there are still not dynamic pictures of diving birds, that would show the gannets in their very characteristic and making a big impression dive-flight. The birds always appeared in flocks over the water where the dolphins were preying, circling above them. There were tens of them and suddenly, from the height of several meters, the group dived vigorously into water in search for fish. We sawsuch hunts a few times, but it was always too far to take satisfactory pictures. I have added one picture of the final stage of gannets’ flock hunting to the gallery. Single birds were often flying by at a short distance from the boat. It happened for the birds to float calmly next to us. I took many pictures of gannets, which radically changed the content of the gallery of this species. The Northrn Gannet goes to the news section of my gallery.
Last minute news- 09/2020 Heligoland – Germany
There are places on the bird map of Europe that are either worth visiting. Helgoland definitely belongs to such places. A small island, actually two small islands with an area of about 1,7 kilometer, located in the North Sea, near Hamburg. More than 400 species of birds have been recorded in the history of bird observation on such a patch of land. The most associated species with Heligoland is the gannet, or rather its colony. It is located on a steep coast with a convenient path for walkers. Some of these paths are situated literally several dozen centimeters from the nests of gannets. The passers-by are completely ignored by the birds. It happens that in strong winds the birds hang in the air above the heads of the watchers literally at arm's length. Such closeness to nature means that photography is sometimes forgotten in favor of observation and admiration for soaring gannets. It's amazing how easily they can use the wind to glide and perform various aerial acrobatics. I couldn't resist to stop at just pictures this time. Several film shots of soaring birds were made, although it was very difficult due to the very strong wind blowing during the shooting. Thanks to several meetings, the proximity of the colony, so many photos and videos, and recordings of the sound of the colony, were created that an interesting slideshow was created showing scenes from the life of a gannet colony. I posted it on YouTube, and the link to it is below the text - feel free. But back to the birds themselves. The nests are separated by several dozen centimeters, so it is not difficult to argue and scuffle. This accumulation of birds in a small space is a great difficulty in photographing. Just like with red kites. Always a different, not photographed bird enters the frame and it is difficult to get nice, "clean" shots. The silly greetings are also quite specific. The bird landing next to the partner first aggressively squeezes him by the neck, so that after a while the erect birds greet each other gently tapping their beaks and cleaning each other's plumage on the neck and head. At the same time, they are very delicate and caring. Amazing that they do it every time their partner returns to the nest, as if they are enjoying every moment together. The greeting lasts a long while and is watched every time by their chick, which is usually the only child. In the first decade of September, we observed specimens that were already volatile, but most of them were still in the nest, and some of them even had down feathers. There is practically no trace of the old content, and the gallery goes to the news with its own soundtrack.
Apart from gannets, guillemots, black legged kittiwakes and little auks also nest on steep rocks in spring and early summer. Unfortunately, there is no such close contact as with gannets and the perspective for photographing is worse. Of course, during the day, you should also check out a few beaches which were sometimes swarming with birds (list below). It is interesting that on one of the beaches, exactly in the same place, at the same time the next day, it was the proverbial bird desert. On the smaller island, you can also photograph gray seals, which we sometimes saw dozens of individuals. Keeping the 30-meter distance required on the islands, it was easy to take the pictures of the gray seals presented in the gallery.
During this trip, no new bird gallery was created, but over 20 existing galleries have completely changed their content. In some galleries, I have listed almost or all of the photos. The trip should definitely be classified as successful, interesting and in the good company of Krzysztof. Krzysztof greetings and thanks for the perfect organization of the entire trip. In the list of species from the expedition (below), in brackets T- means that the gallery has been attached with text information, G- means that a soundtrack has been added.
Last minute news- 09/2020 Heligoland – Germany
This year, Helgoland surprised me with a much smaller number of birds than could be seen a year ago. I am talking about observing and photographing on the beaches. The dominant species this year there were sanderling and starling. Sometimes in the sanderling flock it was possible to observe a tiny runner. White wagtail, northern wheatear, common ringed and ruddy turnstone were common on the beaches. That is, no variety, apart from the lack of bar-tailed godwit, purple sandpiper on the beaches of Heligoland. Of course, the galleries have been supplemented with new, more interesting shots. Although it was not my first encounter with northern gannets, the return to the their colony was again a great experience for me. The closeness of birds means that sometimes observation has replaced photography. I can assure you that they are amazing when they approach the landing several dozen centimeters from the tourists staying on the sidewalk by the colony. It was also possible to observe them hunting this time. Unfortunately, the distance was too great to take satisfactory photos. Nevertheless, I added a few, because it's quite unusual and difficult to take photos of them. Birds flew low over the water like a reconnaissance flight, then quickly soared up, and after a while they hit the water with force, diving into the water in pursuit of the fish. Since the gallery was already one of my favorites and had interesting content, I added a dozen or so new photos in a slightly different layout than before. This time, photographing gannets was like a photography workshop. Hundreds of trials with different lenses resulted in the creation of very different photos than those presented so far. Greetings to the whole team, starting with the youngest participant, Aleksander, who bravely accompanied us throughout the trip. Greetings to Tadeusz (link), Michał (link), Kuba and special thanks to Krzysztof for organizing the entire trip.
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