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The Gannets of Bonaventure by Dr. Leonard Lee Rue III
What a contrast from the first day, which was one of those God-given days that was picture perfect! The sky had been azure, the sun bright, and the weather delightfully cool. We'd arrived too late to make a trip up to the gannet colony on Bonaventure worthwhile so we'd contented ourselves with taking a boat tour around Perce Rock and Bonaventure.
There are a number of tour boats that will take you out to Bonaventure Island and they all charge the same rate, about twelve dollars. We took the "Capitaine Duval" because it was the largest boat and, being a catamaran, provided a much more stable platform from which to photograph any seabirds as we toured around Perce Rock and the island, before landing on Bonaventure itself. The figures change constantly and the latest survey has not been published as yet, but it is estimated by the park service that there are about eighty thousand gannets, fifty thousand black-legged kittiwake gulls, five hundred herring gulls, two hundred fifty black-backed gulls, nine hundred fifty double-crested cormorants, thirty-six thousand common murres, five hundred fifty razor-billed auks and two hundred black guillemots. There are a few other birds, as well as snowshoe hares and red foxes on the island, but we did not see them.
Originally, gannets nested primarily on cliffsides because those areas do offer the birds the greatest protection from such predators as foxes. As the gannet's population increased, the birds adapted to nesting on the bare cliff tops in huge colonies. Bonaventure Island was first visited by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and he made no reference to seeing gannets there, although he did write about seeing these birds on the Magdalen Islands and called them "margalaux". Gannets were first noted on the island in 1860 and the population was given at three thousand birds in 1887. The boat ties up to a wharf, or quay, that once served the fisherman who lived on the island. Snacks can be purchased at the Visitor's Center and toilet facilities are located there as well as at different spots near the bird cliffs. Four hiking trails lead to the gannet colonies. Take the "Sentier des Colonies", as it is the shortest and can be walked in about forty-five minutes. It is uphill as you go from sea level to over four hundred feet then down to the cliffs. The trails are wide, packed and well maintained.
Your biggest problem will be "what to shoot first". A 400mm to 500mm lens is ideal for portraits, but you will need a wide-angle lens to even begin to show the scope of the colony. One word of caution, the solid sea of the pure white birds will blow your meter sky high; open your lens one to one and a half stops for correct exposure. You cannot get on the island until 10 a. m. and the sun will have already moved toward the south so the lighting is favorable all day long. You must leave the island at 5 p. m. As mentioned, you might have to delay your trip out to the island, as we did, because of sudden, prolonged and strong storms. Researchers have discovered that birds that nest in large colonies are subject to social stimulation. This causes all of the birds to be more or less synchronized in all of their activities. In the case of the gannet, this is extremely important because both the hatching times and the fledging times occur at the peak of two different runs of herring, the gannets' main food. However, like all creatures, some of the gannets are out of sync so you may be able to get some of the birds incubating while most are feeding chicks. The gannets return from wintering off the Florida coast around the first of April. The island cannot be visited until the first part of June to insure that the birds are not disturbed when they are returning to their respective nest sites. At that time there is turmoil enough as the gannets are extremely pugnacious and the three and four year old birds are attempting to locate nest sites in the colony that had previously belonged to birds that have died. To get some semblance of order out of all the chaos, the gannets have very elaborate, and predictive, postures by which they communicate. When the birds stand in their nest and bow with wings raised, it is a "no trespassing" warning. Any interloper will be stabbed with the gannet's five-inch beak.
Birds leaving the nest run a gauntlet of jabbing beaks until they get to the cliffside where they can launch themselves into the air. Returning birds fly to their nests and slip in where their mate rises to greet them with bill banging called "fencing". The male then aggressively grabs the female by the nape of the neck while she turns her head away. Copulation often follows this acceptance. You just can't take too many behavior photos so take lots of film. Nest building is an unending chore throughout the entire season. As material is scarce, every twig, scrap of seaweed or shed feather is a treasure. The nests are constantly being rebuilt, added to or rearranged. Every bird is either stealing material from the neighbor's nest, if it is able, or is having its nest material being stolen. The constant chaos makes for great photographic opportunities.
As the young gannets lose their white down, it is replaced by dark feathers across their breast, back and wings. This dark coloration is what protects them from their own parents who would not tolerate a white bird in their nest site. The parents cannot recognize their own chicks. The chicks finally leave the nest, and their parents' care, around the tenth of September and shortly thereafter the adults begin to leave the colony and all head south toward Florida. All told, this gives photographers almost three full months in which to photograph one of the greatest bird spectacles on our continent. For more information, contact the Perce Tourist Board |
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