Had a brilliant visit yesterday to Fowlsheugh. Loads of guilliemots, fulmars, kittiwakes, razorbills, herring gulls and puffins. The puffins were very visible and were great to watch as these birds really do interact with each other. We noticed a small group of gannets who were diving for fish, amongst them a juvenile. Are the gannets nesting anywhere near Fowlsheugh or where have they come from? Great to see them so close to home. I'll post a couple of shots I took from yesterday.
Gannets nest at Troup Head on the Moray Firth (highly recommend a visit if you are up that way!) and also there is the famous colony on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth. Gannets can and do travel long distances from their nesting colonies to find fish so there is even the possibility the gannets were from even further away!
I think I'll probably miss most of the seabirds at Fowlsheugh now as it will probably be a while before I can get back there :-(
Glad you enjoyed your visit (and got to see puffins as well!)
As KatTai said, the nearest nesting gannets are at RSPB Troup Head (have a look at www.rspb.org.uk/trouphead), but a gannet can spend a couple of days away from the nest looking for fish so could be from as much as 200-300 miles away.
Thanks for the info - I was hopeful that we maybe had a mini colony somewhere near Fowlsheugh. Bass Rock is definitely on my "to do" list, as is Troup Head.