The Slack-ass Naturalist Chronicles 2: Gannets

All right, for any of you who may have given me the benefit of the doubt as to just how much of a geek I really am, well...sorry. I'm a member of the Nova Scotia Bird Society, and attend birdwatching field trips pretty well every month of the year. With people whose median age is roughly double my own. *sigh* I know, but they're an awesome group, and it really is nice to get out and geek out now and then. I'd never get up the ambition if I didn't have an excuse to do so, and I want to learn more about ID-ing birds--it's a skill that I can use at work--and what better way than to go out with way more experienced birders than myself?!

November's field trip was to the Canso Causeway, where billfish on their annual migration tend to congregate. These billfish are a great food source for local birds--Bald Eagles and Gannets and many species of gulls among them. Unfortunately, the Causeway is about 2 hours' drive from home, which means I had to get up at 6:00 on a mother-effing Saturday morning, AND give up my beloved weekly pilgrimage to the local Farmer's Market. This is why I don't often go birding on my own--am not a morning person. It's a testament to my husband's awesomeness that he not only humours this silliness, he even joins me for some of the trips despite his better judgement (and takes great pictures, which I never think to do).

So, these are Gannets in action. The Gannet is lovely bird, bit bigger than a seagull, and as my dear lordhelmet can tell you, they wet their nests. (For the rest of you, look up the Monty Python bookstore sketch--it's great!) Gannets have the absolute coolest method of catching their food in the whole freakin' animal kingdom. Oookay, here's hoping I've correctly figured out how to install a video thingy into my blogamabob....




So if that didn't work...er...trust me, it's awesome. Basically, when fishing, they tuck in their wings and plunge into the water as they'd been shot. Great show, especially when there are hundreds of them feeding all at once!

Oh, the eagles put on a good display too. I'm a bit blase about them, since they're not uncommon around here, but to see them by the dozens (we counted about 100 over the course of the morning) is pretty freakin' cool.

So, all in all, a neat way to spend a weekend morning, lost hours of sleeping in aside (made up for that by sleeping 'til noon on Sunday...well, technically 11:00, thanks to the time change). Didn't hurt that Dave and Mary, the couple who leads the field trip, also hosted a spectacular lunch at their place after the field trip.

\geekitude (for now)