Northern gannets on Bonaventure Island (lots pf photos)

[a_auger]

Hello everyone! Yet another post from my vacation in Gaspésie, Québec. This time we went for a boat ride around Bonaventure Island National Park. After the tour around the island, we went for a walk on the island itself to enjoy the pedestrian trails and to see the colonies of Northern gannets (Fous de Bassan in French). There were tens of thousands of these birds and I got lots of cool shots from pretty close too. I also got my first in-flight shots worth sharing too! They won't win any prizes, but I'm pretty satisfied. All shots taken with my trusty 7D and Tamron 70-300. The majority of these shots are not cropped, save for levelling and aspect ratio stuff.

1: Picture from the boat of a gannet that caught a bit of seaweed:


2: I like the background of this one. It's a change from blue skies. Once again taken from the boat.


3: The cliffs around the island are nesting grounds for these maritime birds.


4: Taking a running (swimming?) takeoff


5: Taking a nose-dive for some fish. It was pretty fascinating to see.


6: Picture taken at the colony itself, on the island near the cliffs.


7: I assume the shape of those eyelids lets these birds dive better...


8: This one pretty close considering I didn't need to crop this (save for the aspect ratio)


9: The colony of gannets. It was like this for kilometres...


10: Pretty proud of this one. A gannet just about to enter the water. Taken from the cliffs.


Thanks for watching!

 

[Augphoto]

A great series.

 

[baturn]

Excellent set! I especially enjoyed the two diving shots.

 

[a_auger]

Thanks! Those birds are pretty spectacular when diving. I was reading up on them, and they can dive up to 100km/h, that's 60mph in the water!

 

[Msteelio91]

Cool diving shots, pretty birds!