On the high white cliffs at Bempton, all kinds of sea birds nest in spring: puffins, guillemots, herring gulls and gannets. The cliffs start to look like slum apartment blocks and by July there’s a quite a pong from the guano (that’s poo to you and me).
On these cliffs, a pair of gannets laid two eggs. One hatched and they called the baby Janet.
She was just a ball of white fluff but already she had a gannet’s pale blue eyes. When she grew up, Janet would have beautiful yellow plumage on her head.
The next season, Janet the Gannet was a fine young adult. In high spirits, she flew off the cliff, over the choppy emerald water and down Filey’s fabulously long beach.
Unfortunately, the humans had made a mess and there was a slick of oil in the bay. Silly Janet dived straight into it and tarred her lovely feathers. Covered in goo, she was stuck on the beach, flapping helplessly.
At that moment, Linda Longbottom and her Mum and Dad were just coming out of the Penny-farthing Café, where they had overdone it with the treacle sponge pudding.
“I’m stuffed,” said Linda.
“A walk on the beach and some ozone is what we need,” said her Dad.
They set off in the direction of the white cliffs. “What’s that black thing?”asked Linda, running ahead to investigate.
“Looks like a poor sea bird,” said her Mum.
The Longbottoms happened to have a towel with them, so they wrapped Janet up and took her gently to their car.
“I want to hold her,” said Linda, “but will she peck me?”
“I think she’s too poorly to do that,” said Linda’s Mum.
Janet sat on Linda’s knee in the back seat of the car. Her long, strong beak poked out from the towel but she did not peck. The bird seemed to understand she was being helped and for a gannet, she was very still and quiet.
Not far away, next to a pub, was a bird rescue centre. The Longbottoms took Janet to see the vet on duty.
“Oh dear,” he said, “I am afraid we get quite a lot of cases like this. But don’t worry. We have a special washing machine for sea birds.* ”
He took Janet away to be washed. “If she is strong, she will survive,” he said. “And then we will release her.”
Linda did not see Janet after that. But the following year, in August, Linda and her Mum were sitting on a bench on Filey seafront, looking out to sea.
Over the water, the gannets were diving for fish.
“Do you think Janet is out there?” asked Linda.
“I am sure she is,” said her Mum.
One gannet made a particularly steep dive and dramatic splash.
It was Janet the Gannet. Seconds later, she emerged from the glittering water with a big silver fish in her beak.
* Oiled sea birds can in fact be washed but it is a stressful process and they must be healthy to undergo it. They are gently washed by hand, rinsed, dried and re-waterproofed before being returned to the wild: https://www.bird-rescue.org/our-work/aquatic-bird-rehabilitation/our-process-for-helping-oiled-birds.aspx