Muriwai Gannets

The Australasian Gannet colony at Muriwai is a popular tourist attraction with hundreds of tourists visiting the birds each day during their breeding season. The viewing platforms place you above the birds and allow you to get very close without disturbing the birds at all. In fact the gannets at Muriwai have adapted well to having people around and have made use of many man made items as nesting materials.

These images were taken in late December 2016, there were many fluffy white chicks on the nests and still a few eggs about. Some birds were still busy building nests and there were many ‘teenagers’ on the outskirts of the colony practicing all sorts of behaviours. It was incredibly windy the days that I visited this colony and while this was a hindrance for me, it was part of the reason the colony established itself there in the first place.

This project is a work in progress and more images will be added over time.

© Digitalpix Photography