Back on Longboat Key, Florida, I was birding along Sarasota Bay this morning, watching American white pelicans, red-breasted mergansers, double-crested cormorants, chocolate-brown pelicans together with laughing gulls feast on the recovering fish population (see Birdlife afterwards the Red Tide) when a prehistoric figure soared inwards from the Gulf; it was a magnificent frigatebird, the outset I lead keep seen this year.
Spending well-nigh of their lives at sea, these marine aerialists snatch fish from the sea surface, scavenge spend upward from line-fishing boats or pocket prey from other sea birds. Visiting subtropical together with tropical bays throughout the year, they exclusively nation during the summertime breeding flavor when they assemble inwards colonies on mangrove islands. Ill equipped to maneuver on nation together with unable to ascent from the sea surface, they produce non swim together with cannot walk; rather, they must await for winds to takeoff from their mangrove perch. Each twosome raises i chick per twelvemonth together with the woman someone provides nutrient for its outset twelvemonth of life.
Though I lead keep seen large flocks of magnificent frigatebirds inwards the past, a lonely wintertime wanderer is peculiarly inspiring, knowing that he has been aloft for vi months or more, oft sleeping equally he soars to a higher house the warm precisely turbulent waters of tropical together with subtropical seas. The fact that he oft steals his repast does non diminish my admiration.
Spending well-nigh of their lives at sea, these marine aerialists snatch fish from the sea surface, scavenge spend upward from line-fishing boats or pocket prey from other sea birds. Visiting subtropical together with tropical bays throughout the year, they exclusively nation during the summertime breeding flavor when they assemble inwards colonies on mangrove islands. Ill equipped to maneuver on nation together with unable to ascent from the sea surface, they produce non swim together with cannot walk; rather, they must await for winds to takeoff from their mangrove perch. Each twosome raises i chick per twelvemonth together with the woman someone provides nutrient for its outset twelvemonth of life.
Though I lead keep seen large flocks of magnificent frigatebirds inwards the past, a lonely wintertime wanderer is peculiarly inspiring, knowing that he has been aloft for vi months or more, oft sleeping equally he soars to a higher house the warm precisely turbulent waters of tropical together with subtropical seas. The fact that he oft steals his repast does non diminish my admiration.
No comments:
Post a Comment