Gannets
5 places to see and hear gannets in the wild, in 4 countries from United Kingdom to Spain: when each one peaks, where to go on your own, what it costs and what you will hear. Wild animals only, no zoos.
Best time, place by place
| Spectacle | Country | Peak | On your own? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seabird cities | United Kingdom | 20 May – 15 Jul | Partly on your own |
| Helgoland Lummenfelsen: guillemots, gannets and the 'Lummensprung' | Germany | 15 May – 28 Jun | You can go on your own |
| Sept-Îles: gannets on Rouzic, puffins and auks | France | 1 May – 15 Jul | Partly on your own |
| Cap Gris-Nez: seabird passage through the Dover Strait | France | 15 Sep – 31 Oct | You can go on your own |
| Seabird passage at Estaca de Bares | Spain | 1 Sep – 31 Oct | You can go on your own |
Where to go, north to south
Seabird citiesA wall of seabird calls: gannet grating, kittiwakes calling their name, guillemot growls, puffin burrow moans, sea and wind below.
Helgoland Lummenfelsen: guillemots, gannets and the 'Lummensprung'Germany's only seabird cliff: guillemot growls, kittiwake screaming, gannet colony grating, fulmar cackles; at the jump, chicks peeping and adults calling them down to the sea 40 m below.
Sept-Îles: gannets on Rouzic, puffins and auksFrance's only gannet colony (about 14,000 pairs on Rouzic) as a wall of grating calls from the boat, puffins and kittiwakes on the sea, and the Atlantic swell against the granite.
Cap Gris-Nez: seabird passage through the Dover StraitA visual passage — skuas harrying terns, gannet lines, scoter strings — above the one great sound of the place: the Channel breaking on the rocks 50 m below, with kittiwakes and the Gris-Nez foghorn in sea fog. Overland, meadow pipits and finches stream past calling on October mornings.
Seabird passage at Estaca de BaresMostly a scope spectacle — over a million seabirds a year round Spain's northernmost point — but the gale, the surf on the rocks and passing gannet flocks make a raw Atlantic ambience.