CALLOUS BIRD PARENTS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1924, Page 16

CALLOUS BIRD PARENTS

A GANNET'S FLIGHT,

Tlie gannet, or Solan goose, is a conservative bird in its choice of a nesting station, and along tho east of Scotland and England only a single nesting rock of the species is to be found, writes Seton Gordon, F.Z.S., in the "Daily Mail.".' The Bass Rock—for this is the gannets' haunt—lies 3^ miles east ol North Berwick, and in good weather is easy of access. Hove an incredible number of salon geese - annually rear their young, but it is not until September and October that the latter leave the nest. In those months the departure of tho youngsters on their first flight from the nest is an almost hourly occurrence. '. v

.The gannet rears a single'young bird, and during its prolonged fledglir.g period both parents- are most attentivo to it. They range the seas near and far in their fishing expeditions, and there is little doubt that some of the -mackerel and herring on which the young are fed are caught at a distance of well over a hundred miles from the Bass. But towards the end of its time in the nest the young bird must see a change of behaviour on the part of ita parents. No doubt to its intense surprise and annoyance it is no longer fed, and it is perhaps largely the pangs of hunger that induce it ultimately to take flight. Ono might imagine that at this critical moment the old birds would be eager in their help and would accompany their young one out to sea. But remarkable to relate, they take not the slightest interest in their progeny. Sometimes on th* first flight the young gannet losing ,ts_ nerve, falls headlong, and is dashed against a projecting ledge If all goes well with it and it sm-vives'the first few anxious seconds, the novice flies strongly out to sea.