Gannets of Murawai

At the end of last week, we made an overnight stop in Murawai at the RV park near the beach. Jeanne’s dad, Gordon had been talking about the Australian Gannet colony there over and over, so, we made the stop. Now, I am very aware that this is the wrong time of year, but he insists on stopping here to show me the thousands of Gannets and their young. We arrived in the late afternoon, so I made the walk down to the beach, and walked up to the cliff that is where the nesting sites are located. I had very low expectations, but, there were a couple of Gannets flying about. So, the next thing bright and early I was at the top of the cliffs, looking down on 8 immature Gannets, and about 15 Adults. The adult birds were flying out to feed, and then returning to “off load” the fish to their youngsters. At the peak of breeding/nesting season, this area does indeed host over 1000 nesting pairs and their young. The nest sites remain year round and can be seen in the photos below.

Here is a shot of what the nest area looks like.

....and Mom, dropping off breakfast!