Abstract
In 2011, thirteen adult northern gannets (Morus bassanus) from Bempton Cliffs, on the northeast coast of England, were fitted with satellite tags to investigate their foraging ranges during chick-rearing and early post breeding periods. This was the second year such a study had been undertaken on gannets from the Bempton Cliffs nesting colony, which is a technically challenging site to work at. In particular, we were interested in finding out the likelihood of overlap with potential development zones for offshore wind energy generation in the North Sea. Locations of tagged birds during chick-rearing coincided with the Hornsea offshore wind energy zone in particular, with some birds recorded on Dogger Bank and one in the East Anglia zone, and a few recorded locations within the Greater Wash strategic area for wind energy generation. Post-breeding locations overlapped in particular with the Hornsea and East Anglia zones before dispersal out of the southern North Sea or cessation of recording. The two seasons of study, in 2010 (n=14) and 2011, have increased our understanding of the locations of Bempton gannets at sea. This report presents preliminary result for 2011 chick-rearing and early post-breeding periods, together with an initial comparison of results from 2010 and 2011 chick-rearing periods, which show a marked similarity in the sea area used. Relatively small samples mean that we remain unsure just how representative the data are of foraging activity by breeding gannets from year to year, in particular in less favourable conditions. A third season of data collection is underway in 2012.