How cute is my new gannet puppet?

‘What’s a gannet?’ is often the first thing people ask me when I tell them the title of our new picture book.

💦 Like a Gannet 💦 @kirstenealand @debi_hudson @windyhollow

I bet you know lots of water birds - ducks, swans, cormorants. Well, now it’s time to get to know the beautiful gannet.

🐦 Gannets are large, mostly coastal seabirds about the size of a goose. They have a yellow blush on their heads, black-tipped wings and long grey bills.

🐦 You have most likely seen one dive bombing somewhere off the coast of Australia…

They are spectacular high-speed divers and expert fishers and the three species – the Australasian, Cape and Northern gannets – can be seen dive-bombing for fish off coastlines around the world.

🐦 They mainly eat squid and fish that school near the surface of the water. When they locate a school, they dive from heights of up to 30m, folding their wings back and taking the shape of a spear, before hitting the water at high speeds of up to 100km per hour.

Plunging into the water up to 20m deep to catch their prey, their momentum is so great they leave a vapour trail of tiny bubbles. Great swimmers, they use their wings, feet, and tail, to pursue, catch and eat their prey underwater before popping back up to the surface.

🐦 They have lots of special adaptations to protect them when they hit the water at such high speed such as –

— long, pointy bills to cut through the water

— ‘airbags’ that inflate under their neck and shoulders before impact

— nostrils inside their bill that can be closed so water can’t go up their nose during a dive

🐦 Gannets spend almost their entire lives in and above the sea, only coming onto land once a year to nest on cliffs or offshore islands where they lay a single blue egg and raise their chick. Their short legs and webbed feet make them slow, clumsy waddlers on land, but they transform into Queens of the Sea when they dive.

Can’t wait to share the gannet puppet with kids when I read #likeagannet - a joyous celebration of one little fledgling who wants to be a gannet.

Release date 1st Oct 2024!