Return of the Gannet

Gannets return to the Strait of Gibraltar during September and October. Juvenile birds are most obvious at first and are the ones which migrate furthest, reaching down to tropical West Africa.

These birds were born this summer in colonies on the north-west coasts of Europe, in France, the British Isles and Scandinavia and quickly make their way south to avoid the harsh northern winters and make the most of the concentrations of fish in the Strait of Gibraltar and coastal upwellings along the proximal Atlantic coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

Large shoal of Grey Mullet off Gibraltar today (above).

These birds will now remain with us until the spring and many will linger on through their first summer. It is only as they get older, and their plumage progressively whiter (below) that the urge to migrate north in the spring gets stronger.

So here are a few more images of these amazingly "painted" birds, which appear drab and brown at distance but which reveal beauty at close quarters - don't you think so too?