Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire, is
home to around half a million seabirds between March and
October each year. A range of birds settle down here to raise
a family on towering chalk cliffs which overlook the North
Sea. Of all the birds that nest there, the Northen Gannet is
by far the largest and there are thought to be around 11,000
breeding pairs of them on these cliffs alone.
The Gannet is a beautiful seabird,
very elegant in flight and known for its impressive diving
ability. Recently, I took a boat trip out just off the cliffs
to witness one of natures greatest spectacles. When a large
shoal of fish is present the birds will gather in great
numbers to dive in and feed. Naturally, arguments and fights
will break out between the huge seabirds as they attempt to
gather as much fish as they can before its all gone. During
this boat trip, the operators simulated this situation by
throwing out large buckets of fish – the birds are happy to
oblige the boat full of spectators.
During a restless feeding frenzy, I
took thousands of images and literally felt exhausted trying
to capture the chaos all around me. This was one of my
favourites from those images, I used a smaller lens for this
to capture the scene as a whole – you can get an idea of just
how many birds were there. |
