There is a reason why small birds have large broods and large birds have a longer life span. Today's encounter with this juvenile gannet sitting on the beach illustrated the topic of this species juvenile mortality and how little time they have to perfect the art of diving successfully for their own food. Tragically this individual like so many others won't be making it's way out to the Atlantic ocean to winter of Africa's coast. A phone call to the SSPCA to come and collect it to save it a lingering death turned out to be it's fate, It's injuries were horrific and I admit to a bit of image manipulation to spare you the detail. I can only imaging the entry into the water was abysmally wrong or it was close to shore and hit something under the surface. Such a shame.