Seabirds
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On the high tide,Mostly Ringed plover and some Dunlin
Hoylake Shore
Dee Estuary North Wirral - Dee Estuary Birds
www.deeestuary.co.uk/nwirral.htm
The north Wirral shore - vast sand banks, promenades, embankments and sand ... The shore at Hoylake at the end of King's Gap road is a high tide roost for ...
High tide Hoylake Shore.
Last post in present series
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The Fairy (or white) Tern is a beautiful bird seen on all islands in Seychelles, even islands like Mahe where they are killed by introduced rats, cats and Barn Owls. They are usually seen flying around trees in pairs. Fairy Terns use trees for breeding, although they do not build a nest.
Instead, the female lays a single egg on a rare branch, usually where there is a knot or fork to support the egg. She will sit on the egg to prevent it from falling from the branch. As soon as the egg hatches twenty one days later, the fluffy chick clings on to the branch with its large clawed feet. The adults feed the chicks small fish, which are carried crossways in the parent’s beak.
Fairy Terns have big eyes that are thought to allow them to hunt for fish at night.
A stormy sunset over the coastline of Portknockie on the Moray Firth in Scotland. A four image, long exposure, panorama.
While cruising through the Moraleda Channel in southern Chile, we came across this large flock of cinnamon colored seabirds in a chaotic scene of taking off, landing or floating on the water.
Gannet - Morus Bassanus
Bempton Cliffs
The gannets are large white birds with yellowish heads; black-tipped wings; and long bills. Northern gannets are the largest seabirds in the North Atlantic, having a wingspan of up to 2 metres (6.6 ft). The other two species occur in the temperate seas around southern Africa, southern Australia and New Zealand.
Gannets hunt fish by diving into the sea from a height and pursuing their prey underwater. Gannets have a number of adaptations which enable them to do this:
no external nostrils, they are located inside the mouth instead;
air sacs in the face and chest under the skin which act like bubble wrapping, cushioning the impact with the water;
positioning of the eyes far enough forward on the face for binocular vision, allowing them to judge distances accurately.
Gannets can dive from a height of 30 metres (98 ft), achieving speeds of 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish much deeper than most airborne birds.
The gannet's supposed capacity for eating large quantities of fish has led to gannet becoming a description of somebody with a voracious appetite.
Gannets are colonial breeders on islands and coasts, normally laying one chalky, blue egg. Gannets lack brood patches and they use their webbed feet to warm the eggs. It takes five years for gannets to reach maturity. First-year birds are completely black, and subsequent sub-adult plumages show increasing amounts of white.
The most important nesting ground for northern gannets is the United Kingdom with about two thirds of the world's population. These live mainly in Scotland, including the Shetland Isles. The rest of the world's population is divided between Canada, Ireland, Faroe Islands and Iceland, with small numbers in France (they are often seen in the Bay of Biscay), the Channel Islands, Norway and a single colony in Germany on Heligoland. The biggest northern gannet colony is on Scotland's Bass Rock; in 2014, this colony contained some 75,000 pairs. Sulasgeir off the coast of the Isle of Lewis, St. Kilda, Grassholm in Pembrokeshire, Bempton Cliffs in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Sceilig Bheag, Ireland and Bonaventure Island, Quebec are also important northern gannet breeding sites.
Young gannets were historically used as a food source, a tradition still practised in Ness, Scotland, where they are called guga. Like examples of continued traditional whale harvesting, the modern day hunting of gannet chicks results in great controversies as to whether it should continue to be afforded exemption from the ordinary protection afforded to sea birds in UK and EU law". The Ness hunt is currently limited to 2,000 chicks per year, and dates back at least to the Iron Age. The hunt is considered to be sustainable, as between 1902 and 2003 Gannet numbers in Scotland increased dramatically from 30,000 to 180,000.
Population:
UK breeding:
220,000 nests
After a day on the ocean, fishing for whatever they were fishing for, it's good to kick back with a cold beer.
Pillar Point Harbor, just north of Half Moon Bay, California.
Royal Albatross, Harington Point east of Dunedin, South Island, New Zealand. Not sure if it's flying over the South Pacific or the Southern Ocean at that point.
I have a whole new appreciation for the photogs that capture birds. We happened to be driving thru a deserted Wanchese area when I spotted this guy. Unfortunately, I did not have my tripod with me and the wind was howling across the marsh. I zoomed in but the wind was buffeting me so much that he turned out blurry. All the shots were blurry. ANd he knew how beautiful he was because he just kept preening and posing for me. I wish I could've done him more justice with my amateur skills.
HBW!
Seascape bokeh!
Finally having an opportunity to test out the new 400 mm with and without tripod.
Explored October 15, #237.
I'm told this also made Front Page, but I didn't see it.
Bird Island
Newfoundland
These birds come to the island every year to nest. This just shows a small segment of the island. The majority of them are murres.
Todays exercise walk took me back to the coast, I spent time watching the seabirds dive into the water.