David's Images of the Day Photoblog
At midday I noticed a Booby flying low to the water at a distance. It looked like a Booby. Later at dusk, four of the birds soared over the MV World Odyssey. We tentatively identified these as Masked Boobies rather than Brown Boobies.
Several Brown Boobies spent the day following the MV World Odyssey soaring and fishing.
A Brown Booby was perched on one of the MV World Odyssey masts. This was the first bird I observed since we left Mexico, and the first time I had seen a Booby.
Aft Deck Statue Catching the Rainbow. Later that evening a Masked Booby decided to spend the night on the forward deck. Actually, I think after the bird landed it found out that there was not enough room to take off. The Masked Booby is a big bird. Before the students could harass it, or try to feed it bread crew members came out with a blanket to cover the bird. They then took it to an aft deck where there was room for it to take off and fly away.
Individual images from the slide show can be viewed here.
The Masked and Brown Boobies continue to follow the ship. I think they are using the thermals created by our motion as they search for fish. I managed to get an image of a Brown Booby just after it caught a Flying Fish.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed here.