Masked Booby (Sula dactylatra) cruising along the ship off the coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Ocean.

7 May, 2011.

Slide # GWB_20110507_9553.CR2

Tags:   Masked Booby Caribbean Ocean Columbia Sulidae

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Masked Bo.by (Sula dactylatra) cruising along the ship off the coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Ocean.

7 May, 2011.

Slide # GWB_20110507_9464.CR2

Tags:   Caribbean Ocean Columbia Sulidae Masked Bo.by

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Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) immature following ship along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

11 May, 2011.

Slide # GWB_20110511_0754.CR2

Tags:   Brown Booby Pacific Coast Sulidae Birds Costa Rica

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Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster) adult following ship along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.

11 May, 2011.

Slide # GWB_20110511_0803.CR2

Tags:   Brown Booby Pacific Coast Sulidae Birds Costa Rica

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Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) bringing nesting material to its mate on Bonaventure Island, off the east edge of Gaspe Peninsula near Perce, Quebec.

The island, formerly a Migratory Bird Sanctuary run by the Government of Canada, is now a provincial park operated by the Quebec government and as such has naturalists on site to education visitors and monitor human activity around the island and at the colony. There are no residents on the island and access is by tour boat operators from the village of Perce on the mainland.

The colony is located on the north side of the island and consists of cliff faces and a large area of flat ground on the top edge of the cliffs. Access to the colony is restricted to the flat area on top.

There are an estimated 50,000 breeding pairs and about 30,000 juvenile or non-breeding Gannets. Along the cliff face there are a variety of other colonial nesting seabirds.

I assisted a former colleague in a study to monitor nesting and fledging success on a sample of Gannet nests along the land edge of the colony. These nests will be checked monthly from June through September to monitor how many eggs hatch (each pair has only one egg per nest) and how many young fledge. I was assisting in the first month of the study and spent 6 days visiting the colony and it was an incredible experience.

[Press "L" or left click to view on black]

9 June, 2012.

Slide # GWB_20120609_9032.CR2

Tags:   Bonaventure Island Morus bassanus Northern Gannet Birds Quebec Seabirds Sulidae

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