Death on the Beach

Still beautiful.

This was lying in the sand under the Granite Island causeway.

My friend H and I visited a gannet colony at Muriwai in NZ last November. We spent a long time watching and photographing them wheeling through the air and preparing their nests. A few already had eggs.

I read somewhere that the young from there fly to Australia for a couple of years without their parents and then return to breed and stay for the remainder of their lives. Will this gannet's parents be looking forward to it's return?

I've also read that there are breeding colonies in Tasmania and Victoria.