Gannets

[Ken Rennie]

Very much a Northern European seabird but they also occur on the Atlantic seaboard of Canada. Scotland hosts 2/3rds of the worlds Gannets in the summer before they fly off to Western Africa for the winter. Related to Boobies they are large seabirds, 6.5 ft wingspan and 3ft long, that catch fish by cruising at 100ft until they spot fish below. They then fold their wings and dive into the water at 60mph and spear fish below. They are specially adapter to endure the shock of hitting the water at speed and the sound as they hit can be heard at least 200yds away. Ken

The last 3 images are taken at 10fps

 

[AlanLichty]

Outstanding sequence and I love the details of the bird in the first two images before it starts its dive.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Beautiful sequence. I love the colorations of them. The last image shows how streamlined they are in diving mode.

 

[JimFox]

Great timing with these! What an amazing bird!

 

[Eric Gofreed]

Awesome set, Ken

 

[Ken Rennie]

Thanks everyone. I made a mistake with the shutter speeds with the diving shots. I used 1/2000 s but at the diving speed the birds will move approx 1/2 inch in this time thus removing feather detail unless I manage to pan perfectly and that is unlikely. Next time 1/8000s. If you are interested in seeing them underwater search for David Keep , photographing diving gannets. If you find David Keep you will see that he does a lot of crazy things like swimming with salt water crocs. He came to talk at our camera club and was spellbinding if slightly crazy. Ken

 

[Jim Sanderson]

Nice shots of the gannet’s dive. They’re beautiful birds. We don’t have them in my area. I’ve gotten some nice shots in New Zealand though.