Those white specks scattered around the surface of the Bass Rock are northern gannets—seabirds that spend their springtime breeding and nesting season on the islands and shores of the North Atlantic. At the height of the birds’ nesting season, roughly 150,000 gannets arrive on the Bass to rear their chicks, making this location the largest gannet colony on Earth. There are no human inhabitants on the Bass—the lighthouse is automated. The tiny volcanic plug island is just over a mile off the coast of the Lothian region of eastern Scotland in the Firth of Forth.
An island for the birds
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
The monsoon arrives in the desert
-
The Hermitage of Santa Justa
-
Don’t get lost in there
-
Invisible no longer
-
Ruins of a royal temple
-
A winter’s holiday ends
-
World Meteorological Day
-
Daiichi Tadami River Bridge, Fukushima, Japan
-
Bringing together history and technology
-
Lunar eclipse
-
A most sincere pumpkin patch
-
Golling Waterfall, Salzburg, Austria
-
1, 1, 2, 3: It s Fibonacci Day!
-
A long path to freedom
-
Honoring some real heroes of World War II
-
Celebrating World Water Day
-
Space is for everyone
-
Land ho in New Zealand 250 years ago
-
First day of summer
-
Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe
-
Daylight saving time
-
An inland ocean
-
Füzér Castle in the Zemplén Mountains, Hungary
-
Trunks stick together
-
World Space Week
-
World Art Day
-
Autumn in Piedmont
-
Arrr! Can you talk like a pirate?
-
Yabba-Dabba-Doo!
-
Float on