Up before the beaks

Riot shield in hand, Keith takes a visit to the Bass Rock in the Forth to get up close and personal with the gannet colony there

I’ve never gone birdwatching with a riot shield before but gannets are pretty feisty birds.

So as we made our way up a narrow section of path on the Bass Rock, the small plastic tiles held on either side of our legs provided perfect protection from the occasional peck from their daggerlike beaks.

They worked a treat and it wasn’t long before we reached a small plateau where we stopped and look around us in wonderment. It was a scene almost too much to behold – a cacophony of noise and swirling gannets hanging in the sea breeze on stiffly-held wings.

And then there was the smell, the heavy aroma of fishy guano that enveloped the air like a seeping mist.

Spellbinding, mesmerising, awe inspiring – all descriptions used with too much ease in our day-to-day language. But here on the world’s largest northern gannet colony, such terminology really does apply – and truth be told doesn’t even do justice to the actuality.

Every conceivable space of rock was taken up by nesting birds, stretching ahead of us in a sea of white. This was a place where 1,000 dramas were all being played out at the same time; gannets squabbling and beak stabbing with their neighbours while others were engaged in pair bonding ecstasy as they raised and shook their heads together in mutual affection.

There was also rather a lot of plundering going on, whether it be sneaky birds stealing seaweed from nearby nests in order to top up their own, or herring gulls swooping down to feast on unguarded eggs.

I was on the Bass Rock courtesy of the Scottish Seabird Centre at North Berwick and our guide, Maggie Sheddan, was an excellent host in explaining to our group the fascinating natural history of the birds.

More than 150,000 gannets nest on the rock and they have been doing rather well in recent times, with numbers on the increase. Much of this success lies in their ability to hunt for a variety of fish species over large distances, meaning if fish are scarce in one area, they can find a hotspot somewhere else.

On our way out to the rock, the boat crew threw some dead herring into the sea to enable us to see the incredible diving skills of these birds. As soon as a fish hit the water, a gannet would plunge down after it, entering the sea at an oblique angle with the wings quickly folding back so as to transform the body into a torpedo.

There are so many other seabirds here too, including guillemots, razorbills, shags, kittiwakes and fulmars. We even saw a few puffins.

As I peered down into the Forth’s depths, I couldn’t help but wonder at the huge diversity of marine life that must lie below the waves of this truly magical place.

The gannets on the Bass Rock can get pretty feisty so it’s best to carry some kind of protection.