Cape Kidnappers Gannet Colonies

Last weekend I traveled to Hastings with two fellow photographers with the intention of photographing the gannets and their chicks at Cape Kidnappers. Unfortunately due to the recent weather the nesting is about a month behind normal so there were very few chicks to be seen.

We went out on the Overland Safari bus which takes us right to the edge of the colony and usually you stay there for about 90 minutes or there abouts and then go back with the bus. We didn't go back, we had come prepared with camp chairs, chilly bag full of food and drink and our cameras and we were there for the day. There was another bus later in the day that took us back.

It was quite an experience sitting on the top of the cliff with no one else around. The birds calm down a lot after the buses leave and go about their daily lives. Seaweed is a very important commodity used for nest building and to entice the ladies. The male birds would bring in the seaweed and drape it over the female's head and back in an affectionate way. We decided it was more about providing moisture than anything else but who knows. The juvenile birds would bring in the seaweed and have no idea what to do with it so it was inevitable that fights over seaweed would follow.

The female gannets would then take the weed and position it carefully around the nest mound. Small mounds means they are younger birds, or newer matings. Older birds have larger mounds because they use them year after year. The colony is slowly growing and DOC have recently moved the protection fence back a few metres to allow for the growth. This gave the younger birds new weeds and grass to peck and and a fresh runway to take off from.

We saw several eggs over the course of the day but only one chick. So I didn't quite achieve the shots I was after of little white fluffy chicks but never mind. I have several hundred gannets in flight instead! All the practice with the shags really paid off because I managed to get some lovely sharp shots - a huge improvement from my previous visits to Cape Kidnappers.

Gannets at Cape Kidnappers

Foreign tourists are great for the economy, they spend lots of money touring around New Zealand. The tourist operators just love them. But spending a couple of hours on a small bus with one in particular that asked as many dumb questions of our driver as there are stars in the sky on a clear night, just about drove us all mad. It is amazing that we managed to concentrate on the task of photographing the gannets when we finally reached the plateau colony.
 

To get to the gannet colony we had to drive overland (in air conditioned four wheel drive buses) through Summerlee Station (also known as Cape Kidnappers Station). On the way through our tour guide (driver) told us lots of interesting information about the station and how it had changed over the years. He had spent his whole life living and working on the station and it was very clear to us just how much the place meant to him. It made for a more personal view of the area which was much better than just listening to a scripted guide. Well it would have been if it wasn't for the dumb questions from the front of the bus!

We had the most glorious weather yesterday when we visited the birds, it couldn't have been better. Very little wind, brilliant warm sunshine. On the way home today it was windy and raining - quite the contrast, so we definitely picked the better of the two days. I spent a lot of time trying to capture the perfect flying bird shot. It is not an easy task when they come in so fast and land so awkwardly. It's like they just zoom in and then fall out of the sky, nothing graceful about the gannets landing that's for sure!

We didnt' see any chicks this trip, we were a little bit early. The tour guide told us that the chicks were expected to hatch any time now, and we did see some eggs. The birds incubate the eggs under their webbed feet, it was really interesting watching them wrap their feet around them before settling down. There were still a lot of birds without eggs mating. I am not sure if these were mature birds or young ones on their first trip back to the nesting colony. The plan now is to make another trip back to the plateau colony in early January when there should be plenty of chicks about for us to photograph.