Gannets

Ever seen a gannet before? Thousands of them are nesting in a colony at Cape Kidnappers on New Zealand's east coast. So I took a tractor ride along the beach and a short hike up the hill to see them for myself.

These large seabirds are master divers, capable of plunging 60 feet into the ocean, at 120 km/hr, to catch their prey. They live out at sea most of their lives, only coming back to their colonies to mate and raise their young.









  

It was a privilege to spend a morning with these marvelous birds as they greeted their returning mates and fed their chicks a fresh caught fish or two. 

The chicks will stay in the nest until they grow larger than the adult birds. Then one day they take off and fly straight to the waters around Australia where they feed for a couple of years before returning to their home colony.

Gannet over Cape Kidnappers