Bonkers Bonxies and Greedy Gannets

Recently on Shetland I went on a boat trip to the sandstone cliffs of Noss, home to a gannet colony and many other seabirds. On the way past the Isle of Bressay we got close up views of the great skua, known as a “bonxie” (meaning big breasted) in Shetland. This one had its eye on the bucket of fish on our deck. They predate seabird chicks during the breeding season. We watched this one have an aerial squabble with a greater black headed gull.

As we approached the cliffs at Noss we saw many gannets, magnificent large seabirds.

Our boat brought us close in to the base of the cliffs. There the gannets had nested in pockets of weathered sandstone and were rearing their fluffy chicks.

There was a big group of three year old gannets hanging about on what our skipper told us was “club rock”. He likened these youngsters, identifiable by the amount of black plummage on them, to teenagers. “Aye, they hang about smoking, vaping, partying and eyeing up prospective mates,” he joked.

There were also guillemots perched along the edges. You can see that some of them are the “spectacled” variety.

We came across this shag feeding its chick in this rather horrifying way. Our skipper told us that occasionally a chicks head will get stuck leading to death. Thankfully this one did get its head out!

When the boat started to back off from the cliffs we saw a couple of gannets fighting, probably over territory. Sometimes a gannet will drown its opponent.

The bucket of fish on board the boat was used to feed the gannets so that we could witness them diving under the water at close quarters. A couple of people had “go pro” cameras on poles which were placed into the water to catch the underwater action.

This is what the kind of image the go pros captured. This image was in last month’s wildlife trust magazine.

All in all a great experience to be close up to the bonkers bonxies and greedy gannets!