Podcast Appearances
Yeah, I mean, gannets are our largest seabird.
Wingspan of roughly about two metres.
So they're very big, very long, straight wings.
One of the easiest seabirds to identify if you're learning to birdwatch.
outer wing parts, so big black wingtips basically.
And then the head, especially during the summer on the adults, is kind of a lemony orange colour.
Basically a big black and white seabird.
They were once called Solan goose because they look a bit like a goose as well, just a little bit.
But they're our largest seabird and they like to breed in
great big colonies and Ireland is very fortunate to have a couple of those primarily in Kerry, Wexford and even off Dublin and they're quite incredible.
They like to catch their food when they're at sea
by diving from a great height and going underwater sometimes down as far as you know 20 or 30 meters to grab a fish often it's a mackerel or a herring and then they'll come back to the surface and and they'll fly off and look again they've you know their eyes they've got reinforced nictitating membranes they've got little air pockets around their chest and neck which act
like airbags in a car to absorb the shock of them hitting the water at high speed.
And so they are very, very efficient and successful seabirds.
And they're actually expanding in numbers.
with the avian flu that has been doing the rounds over the last couple of years they got badly hit but thankfully it looks like Irish populations got away reasonably unscathed not without their own problems but they're on the way back and it's great to see that because they're such a magnificent seabird and for anyone
who, you know, goes sailing or is out fishing around Irish waters.
It's the bird that you will look and see and kind of go, fantastic, what a bird, just incredible.