The life of the Gannet

There was great discussion last night at our senior missionary progressive dinner about the gannets. Some were saying that only the newly hatched birds will migrate to Australia and that the parents stay here just always. I thoughts that they all left but in the spring then only the mature adults return to bred again and that the new ones this year will not return for 4-5 years when they are old enough and mature enough to bred. I have researched it and cannot find any answer. Must not be doing the search correctly but I guess we can just wait 6 weeks and go see who is left.  Anyway, the parents are still there and they are often off fishing and just catching the breeze. Those with a little one have least one parent is still with them.

If I say so myself this is a great photo. You can see so many birds is different stages of their development.  So here goes.  In the upper left corner there is a ball of fluff. This baby bird is relatively newly hatched, it has no feathers and cannot stand up.  Right in the middle on the top is a totally white bird, standing with his beak pointed up. He is the next one in the development process.  Right below him you can see the black feathers under the fluff but he is still all fluffy.  Below him is one that is black underneath but still about 3/4ths fluffy. You cannot see his head because it is on the other side of his body and he is picking off the fluff.  Then to the left there are two birds with black wings. The lower one still has some fluff on his head while the other one doesn't. I think they must have staged this grouping just for us so I would not have to post 5-6 photos for you to see it all.  

I am amazed that at this point they are as big as the parent.  

This is the same bird but here he is exercising his one wing. They do not fly AT ALL until they leave on their maiden voyage for Australia.  Sometimes you would see them flapping both wings but then they would have trouble folding it back up. One would flap about 4 times and then quickly fold up the wings.  Or at least try. 

I did learn that the gannet does not have nostrial holes like say the kiwi. When they are flying and feeding they will fly over water, then do like a kamakazi dive into the water and spear a fish, eat it up and then fly away. They hit the  water at a speed of about a speed of 145 km.  If they had nostrial holes they would drownd from the force of the dive. I thought that was interesting.  

They are very loud and not very pleasant smelling but they are birds.   This is the beach that is south of the gannets. (The other beach on the previous post is north of the gannets).  If you look carefully you will see birds flying. They really just are catching the breeze and are glide on the currents. Such a fun bird to observe.