Lot of Bird Action Off Broadkill Today

Hundreds of Gannets Raining on Bait in the Delaware Bay

There were hundreds of gannets raining on bait today off Broadkill Beach and Beach Plum Island State Park.
Easily a mile if not more offshore. I had to break out the big binoculars just to see if they were gannets or gulls. I got some decent shots they were pretty far out. The video is hard to watch without having a seizure. Note to self. Handheld full zoom video requires a tripod. Not windy conditions, and shaky, I Had too much coffee for lunch hands. Boats don’t bob around that much.

The gannets would rain on bait, then drop down to eat. Floating along for a bit, then rise up, fly to the other end, drop in, and start all over. It was a quarter plus mile of circular motion. Grinding up bait as the birds rained in diving at full speed. This is called plunge diving, The birds come in full speed and nail baitfish.
They were too far out to really see any fish action under them. There wouldn’t be anyway.
The Delaware bay surface water is forty two degrees. Not even going to count on striped bass action. It was great to witness, love watching the birds fish.

Buddy of mine was a the inlet “Hey here is big school of bunker out front, I can see from the bridge. Where are you?”
I send him a picture of the camera screen.
“Holy!!! Too bad there aren’t any fish under them.”
Nope …. not yet.
Still a nice day at the beach.