More Gannets at RSPB Bempton Cliffs

SAVE BEMPTON CLIFFS FROM FRACKING!

Photo journal of the Gannet colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE THIS NATURE RESERVE YOU NEED TO TAKE ACTION NOW - SIGN THE PETITION TO STOP FRACKING AT BEMPTON CLIFFS

 - AND PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. 

http://action.sumofus.org/a/SSSI-fracking/2/4/

I am republishing this as a protest against the decision to allow fracking in  this area - PLEASE HELP 

Gannets with Chicks at RSPB Bempton Cliffs

I can't see too many pictures of gannets - they are so elegant and so charismatic they are hard to resist. So - Here are more beautiful original photographs of nesting North Atlantic Gannets . Follow the gannet's progress and wonder at the many displays of affection these elegant birds take part in.

Pictures of Birds: Atlantic Gannets at Bempton Cliffs: Adult Gannets and Gannet Chicks

Gannets at RSPB Bempton Cliffs: 

Watching gannet chicks grow 

Adult Gannet with Fluffy Chick

Like all baby birds, gannet chicks are delightful to photograph and to watch as they grow. Birdwatchers at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire can get exceptionally close to them and it is especially interesting to be able to see the changes in the chicks as they develop.

At first they appear as little more than white bundles of fluff glimpsed under an adult. When sitting beside an adult they can look deceptively large, nearly as big as the parent in fact. Most of their bulk though is down, just fluff. The chicks darken as they get older and as their feathers develop with the head gradually changing from white to grey to dark grey. By the time the birds are ready to fly they appear almost completely black with white speckling.

In this state they will fly with the adults to the Mediterranean and they will stay there for about 3 years. The breeding adults will return to the same spot to nest next year. When they are around 3 years old they will return with the adults although they are not ready to breed. Gannets arn't fully mature until they are about 10. These juveniles can be easily identified flying around the ganneries. They have much more black on their wings, it is only when they are completely sexually mature that thegannets have a pure white appearance with black only on the edges of the wings.

This photo journal is a follow-on article from my previous Gannets At Bemptonpage, and it shows the different stages the gannet chicks go through as they grow. In the colonies the eggs hatch at different times so there is always a colourful range of chicks in view.

If you enjoy your visit, don't forget to recommend it to your friends.

Adult gannet with young chick, you can just see the chick tucked into the cliff.

Development Stages of Growth for Gannet Chicks

Adult Gannet with very young chick -
 newly hatched they are completely white

Stage one - all white

Once hatched, the gannet chick appears as a white downy bundle under one of the adult birds. For a while they look almost bigger than the adults with all that downy fluff. 

Northern Gannet Chick

Stage Two - 

As they get older they start to grow dark feathers to replace the white down.

Stage Three -

Adult Northern Gannet with Gannet Chick

The head stay white and downy longest giving the chick a bit of a lamb-like appearance.

The feathers come in much darker and the head turns grey then becomes darker just before the chick is due to fledge.

Stage Four

11 week old Gannet Chick with Adult Gannet

The chicks become darker

This one is 11 weeks old. 

Fledging

When they are ready to fledge - they are actually too heavy to fly so they throw themselves off the cliff into the sea where they will remain until they loose enough weight and have strong enough wings to take off - the parents don't fed them - at this point the adults have moved off further to sea.  

juvenile gannet in flight

Juvenile gannets will return to the nesting sites where they were born when are about 3 years old. They have more black on their wings than fully mature gannets. Some describe the black and white patterning on the wings as piano-key marking. This juvenile has the beginnings of the peachy nape and head but is not fully sexually mature.

You see a lot of them flying at Bempton Cliffs

How do gannet chicks feed?

Gannet Chick begging for food

Gannet chicks are fed by regurgitation by the adults. The chick will beg for food, the adult stretches her neck up and refurgitates food she has ingested earlier, then fed directly into the chick's mouth. Sometimes it looks as if she is swallowing the whole of the chick's beak.

gannet chick being fed by adult

gannet chick being fed by adult

Information about gannets

• The gannet is the largest of the European seabirds.
• It belongs to the Sulidae family of the Pelecaniformer order.
• It's species designation is Morus brassna and commonly called Gannet.
• An adult gannet is about 35-38 inches long and has a wingspan of over 5 feet.
• It will weight roughly 6-7 lbs.
• Adults are white with a peachy blush on head and nape of neck and black on wing edges.
• Found in coastal regions of Europe including Iceland and northern Mediterranean.
• They breed from March to October in large colonies on cliff edges.
• They feed on fish they catch by diving into the sea from great heights.
• They lay only one egg that hatches in 43-45 days.
• Both adults incubate the egg.
• The chick fledges after about 12 weeks.

PHOTO GALLERY GANNET CHICKS AT RSPB BEMPTON CLIFFS

Adult Gannet with Gannet Chick on nest

Adult Gannet with Gannet Chick on nest

Adult Gannet with Gannet Chick on nest

Adult Gannet with Gannet Chick on cliff nest

Meet the Chaffinch

Chaffinch: Fringilla coelebs

male chaffinch by annmackiemiller

The pretty chaffinch is the most common finch found in Britain.

It is about 6 inches in length, weighs under 1lb, and has a wing span of about 10 inches. It has a long tail and its short conical beak is ideal for breaking into seeds that is its favourite food, often taken from the ground.

The male is characterised by a grey-blue cap and neck; a chestnut back with pink underparts and a greenish rump. He has white shoulder patches and wing flashes that are more obvious when he is in flight.

The female is olive green with a brown tinge. She has greyish-white underparts and narrow white wing-bars.

female chaffinch at feeder by annmackiemiller

VIDEO of Chaffinch Singing

If you would like to know what a chaffinch sounds like, click this link. Chaffinch Singing

Male Chaffinch by annmackiemiller

What do chaffinches eat?

• caterpillars and insects
• seeds and berries
• grass and herb seeds
• 
  

How do Chaffinches nest?

• they tend to pick hollows in trees and build a rough cup of a nest they will line with moss.
• they lay around 4 or 5 eggs
• the eggs are only incubated by the female
• they hatch in around 12 days.
• chicks are fed by both parents
• they fledge in around 15 days
• they mostly only have the one brood every year

They will nest in your hedge so be careful when you clip it.

They will come to feeder but also provide them with a ground feeder that is protected from predators and large birds. Provide them with a good mix of bird seed and meal worms in breeding season and winter. 

 

21 Facts about Chaffinches 

PHOTO GALLERY CHAFFINCH

Male chaffinch with seed

"Incoming!" Chaffinch coming in to feeder

Female chaffinch at garden feeder

Male chaffinch on branch

Male Chaffinch at bird feeder

Female chaffinch looking for food

Birdwatching along Bingley Canal

Along the canal - my 6 feathered families

'what ya doing?" white mallard duck by annmackiemiller

This page takes a look back at the "Fowl Tales", a collection of photo journals featuring British birds taken by me here in Yorkshire. I particularly love wildfowl. These are all photographs of my favourite families taken last year on a small stretch of the Leeds to Liverpool canal, near Bingley, West Yorkshire, England. This is also something of an anticipatory lens, I can't wait to see what I find to photograph every year.

Some people feel the need to travel to exotic locations to photograph birds, but there is plenty to see and learn around your own neighbourhood. All you need is a camera, a notebook and a willingness to venture out in all weathers. Personally, I love to be able to tell a story with my pictures and there is no better way to do that than by observing the birds day by day. I hope you enjoy sharing my journey.

6 Wildfowl Families Along Bingley Canal

There were several waterfowl families that captured my imagination last year.

In their pecking order:

• Grumps and Lady: mute swans who had seven cygnets
• The Canada Geese who had seven goslings
• Greenhill Geese: White domestic geese with only four goslings
• Mama Mallard: a golden-coloured mallard duck who produced 15 ducklings
• Smudge the white mallard duck
• Micklethwaite Moorhens: a mating pair of moorhens at Micklethwaite Wharf who produced two broods

Mute Swans

mute swans with cygnets by annmackiemiller

Two mute swans have been breeding at this site for many years. Lady is his second mate after his first mate was killed by foxes. Grumps is probably about 17 years old and definitely believes he rules the canal. He regularly chases everything off the canal, he seems to particularly hate the Canada Geese.

7 mute swan cygnets

'Lady' the mute swan with cygnets by annmackiemiller

Swans mate for life, Grumps' first mate died and this is his new love called Lady. They had seven cygnets.

Canada Geese

Canada Geese and Goslings by annmackiemiller
Parents keep watch as the goslings feed

 Of the six visiting Canada geese on our Greenhill, there was one mating pair. They produced seven goslings who all survived. They tend to be quite aggressive but can’t stand up to the mute swan. One day in particular Grumps kept them penned in on the wooden workings of the swing bridge.


The folk who own the flats alongside the canal were fortunate to have these little gardeners keeping the grass short.

'On the water' Adult Canada goose with goslings on water

'Keeping it together' Canada Geese Goslings

Greenhill Geese: Embden Geese

'That tickles!' Embden geese with goslings

We have a resident flock of geese who live on our Greenhill- actually it is four small flocks. They are mainly white domestic geese, combining Emden and Toulouse geese, a single China goose and some hybrids that have mated with greylag geese. The gaggle started as escapees from local allotments, now gone wild. At their most there were 70. Of these only four goslings were born last year: one to one family and three to another. What was interesting was that the three chicks were cared for by three geese, mother and father and a beta female.

'follow the butt'
Goslings and adult Embden goose on water

'keep off!' Adult Embden goose protecting young

Mallard Ducks

female mallard duck by annmackiemiller

Mama Mallard is a golden-coloured mallard duck who produced 15 ducklings last year. Included in the brood was one golden chick. There is a really high mortality rate among chicks so sadly only 5 survived to adulthood. I was delighted that the little yellow duckling grew up to be a beautiful little white duck.

mallard ducklings

yellow mallard duckling

mallard ducklings

Smudge the White Mallard Duck

Smudge, mate and ducklings

White mallard ducks are fairly common and Smudge is a white duck with a dark smudge on her head. She and her mate had an early brood which they both looked after but they abandoned after about 3-4 weeks old. Incidentally they were adopted by another mother.

It is unusual for mallards to have a single partner but Smudge is the exception. Her mate is recognisable because he lacks the usual white ring around his neck.

What was interesting was that a few weeks later Smudge inserted her way into another mallard brood and eventually both females looked after the two surviving ducklings.

mallard ducklings

Smudge and her ducklings by annmackiemiller

Micklethwaite Moorhens

moorhens and nest

This was a delightful family of moorhens to watch from nesting their first brood to caring for their second. Of the first brood had eight chicks. All grew into juveniles and then one chick appeared from a second brood. The juveniles and the adults all cared for the tiny bug-eyed chick. Sadly he didn’t survive.

This family build their nest out into the canal giving me a great chance to watch them over a prolonged period.

'in the nest' adult moorhen with chicks on the nest

'Feed me Feed me' Adult moorhen with chick

I've written about these families extensively over on hubpages - you can see the photo journals and others there - AnnMackieMiller on Hubpages.

Where to find photo journals on these families

Mute Swans	Canada Geese	Greenhill Geese	Mallard Ducks	Smudge the Little White Duck	Moorhens
Grumps Swan Pictures Busking	Canada Geese Goslings	Mating Behaviour China Goose The First Goslings Watching Goslings In Flight 3 in a Bed How Geese Nest The Goose Who Can Do Canoe Rolls	Ducklings Behaving Badly The First Ducklings	& the Fat Ball The Little White Duck	Watching Moorhens Nest Building Rebuilding the Nest The First Chicks Another Moorhen Nest

Meet the Blue Tits

Blue Tit: cyanistes caeruleys

blue tit at feeder by annmackiemiller

The little blue tit is one of Britain's favourite garden birds they delight people with their agile feeding habits.

At a little over 4 inches long with a wingspan of 6-8 inches this little charmer weighs no more than 0.75 ounces. They have a distinctive blue cap and yellow breast, black eye stripe and white cheek patches. These birds will happily nest in nest boxes provided they aren't too near to other nesting boxes - I'm sure something to do with the available food supplies.

They LOVE caterpillars and other insect, like pecking at nuts in a feeder and adore suet balls.

They will lay anything from 6 to 16 eggs with the chicks hatching in around 15 days and fledging in 20.

juvenile blue tit with nut by annmackiemiller

Blue Tit Singing

blue tit by annmackiemiller

moulting blue tit by annmackiemiller

They moult every year getting rid of old feathers and replacing them with new. They can look particularly scruffy when they do and when you see them with their own young you think they have been run ragged. Mind you, they have been feeding the young in the nest for weeks so have a right to feel scruffy.  Both adults feed the young in the nest and since eat chick can eat the equivalent of 100 caterpillars each per day, they need to make a lot of trips. 

Young blue tit with moulting adult blue tit by annmackiemiller

adult blue tit in the foreground with young blue tit

newly fledged blue tit - they still have the feeding gape

young blue tits in the rain by annmackiemiller

How to Eat a Nut by Little Tommy Tit

I was fascinated to watch this young blue tit make a meal from a simple peanut. 

first you catch it

secure with feet

check for siblings

chow down

all gone!