Helgoland and The Northern Gannet

I suppose I should tell you where Helgoland is and a little info. I realized after I posted earlier photos that I forgot to mention anything about it. Call me sleep deprived!

Helgoland is located 70 kilometres off the German coastline in the North Sea and consists of two islands: the main island is about 1 km2 and the Dune  is somewhat smaller 0.7 km2, and surrounded by sand beaches. The main island is divided into the Unterland at sea level, the Oberland consisting of a plateau and the Mittelland between them on one side of the island.
Helgoland's famous landmark, The Lange Anna, is a free standing rock column, 47 metres high.

The Dune is a paradise, no one lives there and you get to it by small ferry, only about 10 minutes.

While strolling along the red cliffs on Helgoland, I could see and hear in the distance many sea birds.  What a wonderful sound it was, but unlike anything I'd heard before.  As we began to approach closer to the Lange Anna, I could see the birds nesting in the red cliffs.... now I'm getting excited and really curious!

These are not seagulls!  These are a bird called the Northern Gannet, 
I have never seen one before, and I could tell as I got closer there were little baby gannets! squweee!
Ingrid tells me that they breed here in very large numbers and the babies literally learn to fly by jumping off the cliffs toward the ocean.  There must have been thousands of these birds all along the cliffs.

So here are some of my photos of the Northern Gannet and you'll see a couple of  babies in there too!

Stayed tuned for photos from the Dune.... coming tomorrow!