Gannet central

[billtils]

I've been intending to get some Gannet shots for quite a while now, but the you-know-what keeps getting in the way. At last restrictions were eased sufficiently to enable realistic planning. Choices were a 2.5h drive to an RSPB mainland site or 1.5h drive followed by a short boat trip. Opted for the latter depite the early start (on the road by 04:30). The venue was Bass Rock .

What followed was not exactly what I was expecting ... Firstly (and not totally unexpected) the weather was not quite as forecast (calm seas and light cloud cover turned out to be a distinct swell and persistent heavy cloud). Next up - gannet overload! If you look at the picture of Bass Rock in the link it looks to consist of a light coloured stone, but it's not, it is black rock and the creamy white colour comes from the dense covering of gannets. The trip promised birds would be attracted by "chumming" and indeed they were but they were old hands at this and were already flying low around the boat before the skipper had even started throwing the fish into the water, so clean dive shots were impossible.

Bottom line is something I never thought I'd type - too many birds!

Overall however, still a good outing and here are a few shots for C&C:


It's mine!;





Gotcha!:





Head first:





Posing:





Crowd shot:

[Geoff F]

All good. Some nice feather detail in difficult circumstances.

[purplehaze]

Very enjoyable at my end, Bill.

[billtils]

Thanks Geoff and Janis.

[davidedric]

A photo of gannets headed todays wildlife photos of the week in The Guardian.

I think one of your excellent images would have bested it.

OTOH The Guardian photo was taken by our nephew, so I still might have voted for it

[selig1656]

Gotta love it !!!

[billtils]

A photo of gannets headed todays wildlife photos of the week in The Guardian.

I think one of your excellent images would have bested it.

OTOH The Guardian photo was taken by our nephew, so I still might have voted for it

You are very kind Dave - I think I would have voted for your nephew's ... and not to leave me with a teaser, which one of mine did you prefer?

[davidedric]

Good question, I've been pondering.......

If it were just for me, I'd choose the first for the dynamism and behaviour.

But for the paper I'd choose number four for composition and for the eyes.

I'd be very happy to have taken any of them!

You are very kind Dave - I think I would have voted for your nephew's ... and not to leave me with a teaser, which one of mine did you prefer?

[billtils]

Thanks Dave - I agree with your choices and the reasons behind them. The first has been filed under "near miss" but there was nothing I could have done at the time that would have worked any better

[DanK]

Excellent captures. I particularly like the second and third.

[pschlute]

Excellent captures. I particularly like the second and third.

+1 here too

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bill,

Nice series - and you're braver than I, small boats and ocean swell do not agree with me

Cheers,
Dave

[mugge]

I think they are all good photos. I do like the two 'posers.'
Cheers Ole

[Wavelength]

Superb set of images.... First one is threatening