FRANCE: According to recent reports, the Bass Rock population in the Firth of Forth is now the earth’s largest colony of gannets.
There are over 150,000 birds on the rock, located in East Lothian. This represents a population increase of 24 per cent since the last time its population was recorded in 2009.
The population of gannets were counted with computers and images from air.
The gannets travel from as far south as the coast of West Africa in the winter. They are expected to return in a few days.
“The colony was photographed from the air on 23 June 2014. Conditions were excellent, with no wind and a high cover of thick cloud which obscured the sun, reducing the glare from all these startlingly white birds. The images were later viewed on computer screens for counting and each occupied site was blocked-out as it was counted.
“Interestingly, the most dramatic increase is between the old lighthouse keepers’ garden and the summit of the Rock. We counted around 10,000 sites in this area compared with 6,500 five years ago.”
Sarah Wanless, from the CEH, said: “Our long-term research on North Sea seabirds aims to understand how species such as the gannet will cope with the rapid pace of environmental change. This is our fifth census of the Bass Rock in the last 30 years.
“It is particularly heartening to see them doing so well when so many other seabirds in Scotland appear to be in trouble, however, the Bass Rock is a small island and the gannets have now filled most of the available nesting habitat. The colony now has only very limited capacity for further increase.”
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