The northern gannet (Morus bassanus) is distributed across the North Atlantic seaboard, from France to Norway across to Iceland to Canada. But the islands of the UK are home to around 70% of the worldwide population, spread across between 20 and 25 colonies.
I have seen them at just three colonies, at the huge cliffs of Hermaness on Unst, at the island reserve of Noss in Shetland, and the chalk cliffs at Brampton in northeast England. Larger, more impressive colonies are on more remote islands of St Kilda, Bass Rock and Sula Sgair, north of Lewis.
While gannets are frequent fliers around our usual haunts in south Wales, I've only seen Wales' single colony at Grassholm Island from a distance.
I've also been fortunate to see Australia's only mainland gannetry at Danger Point, Portland, Victoria. A different species, the Australasian gannet or takapu (Morus serrated), is widely distributed from Western Australia across to New Zealand.
