“I will praise Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy marvelous works.” Psalm 9:1.
A while ago one of our articles, entitled “Birds of the Cliffs,” mentioned gannets along with petrels, puffins and others and their group-nesting habits. Today we’ll look at the gannet named common in more detail. In the summer they make their homes along the north Atlantic coast, as well as the Gulf of St. Lawrence. They migrate as far south as the coast of North Carolina for the winter.
The common gannet is a large bird, about three feet from the tip of its beak to the end of its tail and weighs about six pounds. It is snow-white except for a pretty light-tan head and neck. It has a long, narrow tail and wings, as well as four-toed webbed feet and a long, sharp bill for catching and eating fish. Its tapered bill is sharply pointed and makes a good weapon. Sealed nostrils keep water from seeping in when it is under water.
They eat nothing but fish, which they go after sometimes in groups or just alone. Depending on the weather, they look for fish while flying just 10 or 12 feet above the water’s surface, or at other times 50 or 60 feet high. Spotting a fish of the right size, a gannet will break away from the group in a quick dive, pulling its wings close to its body at the moment it hits the surface, but opening them under water to help provide swift swimming. The fish rarely gets away.
They can swallow a foot-long fish in one gulp. However, if there is a hungry baby in the nest, the parent will take the catch back to the nest. Then he or she will eat it and bring the digested food back to its throat where the hungry little one can reach it.
Mothers usually lay just one egg on a grass-lined spot of bare rock which is sheltered under an overhanging part of a cliff. It takes about a month to incubate the egg, and the mother does this by placing it under her warm webbed feet. After hatching, both parents guard the baby bird from vicious birds until it is able to fly. At that time it boldly leaps off the side of the cliff, perhaps as much as 200 feet above the water, and promptly discovers why the Creator has given it such strong wings. Reaching the water, it swims around for a long time, gaining strength in legs and body and never returns to its parents.
Isn’t it nice to know that the Creator is always watching over these interesting birds? A Bible verse tells us this: “Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; Thou hast made . . . the earth, and all things that are therein . . . and Thou preservest them all.” Nehemiah 9:6. What does He see as He watches over you?
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
ML-03/14/1993