Gannets sparring

One set of shots I was keen to get on Bass Rock was action shots of gannets interacting with one another. In particular, I wanted to get a shot of the Gannet courtship behaviour, when two birds seemingly battle one another including intertwining their necks and bashing their beaks together, stopping occasionally to preen one another. I had some shots that I was quite pleased with from my previous visits, but I wanted to get more.

The sheer speed with which the birds interact makes the behaviour quite difficult to capture. And the sheer number of birds makes catching this behaviour, and getting a clean back ground, even more difficult. So I tried a mix of shots, sometimes trying to include the full birds, and sometimes zooming in to get head shots of the birds as they interacted.  

Overall I was pleased with the results.

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

  Gannets preeningBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets preeningBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland

Gannets sparringBass Rock, East Lothian, Scotland