It’s official: Bonaventure Island is the Largest Northern Gannet Colony in the World!

Northern Gannet EYE ON U, (Morus Bassanus, Fou de Bassan) Bonaventure Island, Quebec, Canada
Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 1DsMKII, 70-200mm F2.8 @ 160mm 25mm, 12mm & 25mm Extension Tubes ISO 400, F14 1/180s Manual with Canon 580 EX Flash in manual mode and LumiQuest Soft-box III. Full frame. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE AN IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION.

 I have spent so much time on Bonaventure Island over the years and I have so many images – but I still can’t wait for next spring to get back there. Here’s a close-up look into a Gannet’s eye. I used my Canon 1Ds Mark II with my Canon 70-200mm F2.8 IS zoom lens (@160mm), a 12mm and two 25mm extension tubes . Hand-held, but resting on a wooden railing with a LumiQuest Soft-box III on my Canon 580 flash (in manual mode). There is a virtually unlimited number of ways to compose a close-up like this; I often look at it and think about a bit off the bottom and the right side – both compositions work, as do millions of others.

There is a census taken on Bonaventure Island every four years and the results now confirm that the Northern Gannet colony there is, in fact, the largest in the world. As of the 2009 Census, there are officially 59,589 nesting pairs. With virtually unlimited space for the colony to grow, it is expected to stay ahead of Bass Rock in Scotland, where the population has run out of possible nesting sites (a real estate shortage). It is commonly assumed that there are at least as many non-breeding “teens” and don’t forget that most nesting pairs have a baby each year.

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