animalphotography - Northern gannets Flying

In May this year i visited Helgoland for some days together with some friends of mine. There we did a lot of animalphotography of these beautiful birds called "Northern Gannet" or "Basstölpel in german. Because these birds are breeding at this time we where able to get pretty close to them. There is a fence to protect the birds from the humans but the birds are so into building their breeding spots that you could nearly get as close as an meter from them.

Northern gannet with seagrass for the nest. Picture: Florian Glechner.

That's why it's relatively easy to get some great shots when the weather is fine. It was a very nice and cool experience to watch these nice birds in their mating habits and preparing their nests for the eggs. They prepared their nests with seagrass, normal grass, pieces of wood and different materials they found out there either on land or in the sea. Unfortunately you coud see some of the birds building their nests with plastic an other trash they found in the sea. This made me very sad.

Because there is pretty much wind at the cliffs it's easy for the birds to rise up with the wind. But if they have to get to a place where they have to fly against the wind they really need a lot of power. We really had luck with the water this day but it was still very cold because of the wind. We cought a sunburn this day because when there is a lot of wind you don't feel how strong the sun is and you also don't feel how hot it would be without the wind.

Northern gannet enjoying the wind. Picture: Florian Glechner.