Boatswain Bird Island and Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean
Last night we had the unique pleasure of watching female green sea turtles lumbering ashore, digging their massive nests and laying their eggs on one of the beaches of Ascension Island - a rarely-witnessed event I will never forget. Perhaps even more unforgettable for me, however, as a seabird biologist, was watching in awe as the thousands and thousands of seabirds suddenly awakened, erupted and rose from Boatswain Bird Island in the early morning light. Black noddies headed out to sea in droves while white terns performed delicate courtship flights above the cliffs. Yellow-billed and red-billed tropicbirds (or boatswain birds) screeched out cries much like the bosun’s whistle on a ship, and the squawking masked and brown boobies could be heard everywhere as we approached the guano-covered island.
We visited the island twice during our time at Ascension Island, and each time was different and unique. The early morning visit afforded stunning views of hundreds and hundreds of Ascension Island frigate birds, an endemic species found only on this island, rising on the warm thermals as darkness gave way to daybreak. The brown, masked and even a few red-footed boobies began making their way out to sea to hunt for flying fish, while the frigates hovered above the waves, patiently awaiting the boobies returning to their nests and chicks. It is this patience that eventually pays off, for when the boobies return home with their bellies full of flying fish, the frigate birds; with their light-weight bodies, long, pointed wings and deeply forked tails out-maneuver the heavy boobies, harassing them to no end, pulling on their tails, calling them names and eventually upsetting them so much that they regurgitate their hard-won meals, ultimately to be snatched out of the sky by the more aerial frigate birds.
I have visited many seabird-breeding sites around the world, but Boatswain Bird Island; a tiny offshore refuge of tropical oceanic birds has perhaps the highest diversity and density of the most beautiful and unique seabirds at any time of the year, anywhere on earth.
Last night we had the unique pleasure of watching female green sea turtles lumbering ashore, digging their massive nests and laying their eggs on one of the beaches of Ascension Island - a rarely-witnessed event I will never forget. Perhaps even more unforgettable for me, however, as a seabird biologist, was watching in awe as the thousands and thousands of seabirds suddenly awakened, erupted and rose from Boatswain Bird Island in the early morning light. Black noddies headed out to sea in droves while white terns performed delicate courtship flights above the cliffs. Yellow-billed and red-billed tropicbirds (or boatswain birds) screeched out cries much like the bosun’s whistle on a ship, and the squawking masked and brown boobies could be heard everywhere as we approached the guano-covered island.
We visited the island twice during our time at Ascension Island, and each time was different and unique. The early morning visit afforded stunning views of hundreds and hundreds of Ascension Island frigate birds, an endemic species found only on this island, rising on the warm thermals as darkness gave way to daybreak. The brown, masked and even a few red-footed boobies began making their way out to sea to hunt for flying fish, while the frigates hovered above the waves, patiently awaiting the boobies returning to their nests and chicks. It is this patience that eventually pays off, for when the boobies return home with their bellies full of flying fish, the frigate birds; with their light-weight bodies, long, pointed wings and deeply forked tails out-maneuver the heavy boobies, harassing them to no end, pulling on their tails, calling them names and eventually upsetting them so much that they regurgitate their hard-won meals, ultimately to be snatched out of the sky by the more aerial frigate birds.
I have visited many seabird-breeding sites around the world, but Boatswain Bird Island; a tiny offshore refuge of tropical oceanic birds has perhaps the highest diversity and density of the most beautiful and unique seabirds at any time of the year, anywhere on earth.
