Wednesday 13 April 2011

Gannets





The first evening we spent at the cottage we watched two gannets hunting over the bay. They turn to position themselves in mid air and enter the water arrow shaped & at huge speeds. Jess told us the next day that their young are often found washed up with broken necks (a costly misjudgement and a mistake they don't get to learn from sadly)
Also, we were told by the people who owned the cottage that people from Ness have special permission to cull upto 2000 young gannets a year for the purposes of eating them! These young gannets are called Guga and apparently the tradition goes way back with the Guga Hunters of Ness travelling to the remote Sulesgeir (near Isle of Lewis)to bring back this delicacy. Apparently it tastes like fishy rubbery chicken! Yuck! Would rather watch the gannets hunting than see them being hunted myself.

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