I have been visiting the Muriwai Gannets for some years and, like most people I suspect, the initial challenge is to get a good sharp image of a Gannet in flight and I have a number of pictures of this type that please me. On this visit I wanted to explore another view of Muriwai Gannets and try and capture a sense of movement by using slow shutter speeds and panning with the moving birds. Every visit to Muriwai is different with wind direction and strength determining the way the birds fly. This time the wind levels were quite low and as a result of the reduced dynamic lift the birds were flying lower than they often do. This gave plenty of opportunity to photograph them as they flew across a background of sea or in front of the rocks as opposed to a sky background. Nest building was in full swing so there was a lot of opportunity on birds carrying nesting material. Slow shutter speed panning is a low yield pastime making it easy to select keepers after the shoot – most are junk and can easily be binned but the odd images shines through as worth processing.

The colony is very competitive during nest building with nests jammed in and spaced by the reach of the birds. Landing in the wrong place causes immediate conflict and it was quite shocking to see the ferocity of the attacks. The bird in the following pictures was attacked from all directions with the attacks largely focussed on the head and eye. Reviewing the picture later showed the bill of one of the attacking birds jammed in between the eyelid and eyeball of the victim. A potentially fatal injury if the eye is damaged and precludes fishing.

It is alway worth packing a tripod, wideangle lens and ND filter as toward the end of the day landscape opportunities arise that would be worth a visit all on there own.

Photos all with Nikon D810. Gannets with Nikon 200-400mm f4 VR except one with 70-200mm f2.8 VR2 as noted.

Landscape with Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 on Manfrotto 055MF3 carbon fibre tripod with Really Right Stuff BH55 ballhead