Continued from part 1.
Incubation occurs with the egg being nestled in the gannet’s feet for 43 days. Once the chick is born the parents regurgitate food and feed the baby. Fortunately, both the hatching and fledging times occur here when the herring supply of fish is at its peak (the gannet’s main food).
When the baby is about 3 months old, it is larger and heavier than its parents having spent its life to that point just eating and sleeping. At age 3 months, it’s around 10lbs in weight and is too heavy to fly, so it falls off the cliff and learns to swim initially.
The gannets later winter in Florida and return to the same place, when it’s utter chaos as they try to find a place to nest, often taking the nest of a bird which has died. No human visitors are allowed on the island at that time.
When one parent wants to leave to go fishing (the mates take it in turns) the other has to guard the egg, otherwise nearby gannets will simply steal the nest, or even the egg itself! To signal its intention to leave, the gannet goes through a ritual.
At first it points its bill to the sky, signaling to the mate to stay and guard the nest. When it returns, it finds its own family by listening to the unique voices of its own.
The male then pecks the female on the neck and she bows her neck to allow this. Once the male has “established” that this is indeed his female, the pair start a ritual of fencing with their beaks. Their ritual of behaviors gives the photographer an endless supply of photo opportunities. Take plenty of film!
Continued in part 3.
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