Gannets

One of my favorite aspects of spring time (aside from welcoming the whales back to New England) is seeing the Northern gannets! I was at the naturalists workshop in Provincetown this year, and we go to the beaches every day to look for whales. Each year there are hundreds of gannets feeding right off the beach. What an incredible sight! They are migrating up from the southern waters off Florida and the Caribbean and heading to Newfoundland to breed. Massachusetts is like a rest area for them. They stop here to feed on the small fish. Flying 100 feet above the water, you can watch them looking for fish. Once they find some, they drop out of the sky, tuck their wings into their body and dive into the ocean. Upon coming up the surface, they grab fish. These birds are the largest member of the booby family, and we see feeding frenzies similar to the ones that you see on Blue Planet! It is such an amazing sight!!