Images
© Dianne Faucette


Also see:

 

Pelagic birds spend most of their time at sea. Their nesting is on remote islands away from populated mainlands. It is rare to see them on our beaches. Examples of pelagic birds are Petrels, Shearwaters, Albatrosses, Skuas and Gannets. We saw a handful of Northern Gannets diving for food just off the beach of Edisto Island on 2/2/2009. In 2007, over 160 Shearwaters washed up on SC shores--thought to be the result of dehydration, starvation or malnutrition during their 7,500-mile migration.

Northern Gannet on Palmetto Dunes beach on 4/17/2007; had been injured, probably due to abnormally high winds. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, "Flocks engage in spectacular bouts of plunge-diving for fish, with hundreds of birds diving into the ocean from heights of up to 130 feet."
Photo by Fran Baer


Northern Gannet in flight over the 
Gaspe Peninsula. Males migrate to Florida, females migrate to South America, then they all return to the Gaspe Peninsula to nest, with only 31 inches between the nests.

 

 

 

 

 

  
Juvenile Northern Gannet on Palmetto Dunes beach on 12/10/2007; broken wing caused it to float ashore
Photo by Fran Baer


Northern Gannets nesting on Belvedere Island on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec; home of the largest population of this species in the U.S. (second only to Scotland in the world)