Genovesa Island
Today we visited the beautiful ”Bird Island”, and therefore we saw birds, and many of them. Land birds, sea birds, many breeding, many nesting, and some just walking and flying around. One of them must be mentioned, a young red-footed booby almost ready to fly. Another booby we have watched growing up for several weeks by now. Lynn Fowler, one of our Polaris Expedition Leaders, has been sending periodic pictures of it to the web site since it was a tiny hatchling. Therefore, I leave the rest to her.
Note added by Lynn Fowler:
I am on board the Polaris to take a Safety at Sea course that we all need to renew every five years in order to qualify for our seamen’s papers. It is great fun to be on the ship and not actually be working – though the safety course has kept us very busy! Today we had to jump off the upper level deck with our life jackets on.
This afternoon I snuck away from class for a few minutes, and went to shore to check on my favorite red-footed booby chick, “Archie”. I was delighted to see that he is still in great shape, a grown fellow now, and decked out in complete juvenile plumage. He had dirty feet though – so it seems that he is not yet flying or fishing on his own. He was preening as I approached, and had a single fluff of down stuck to his beak.
For those of you who have seen “Archie” mentioned in some of my previous Daily Expedition Reports, you may recall that I have literally known “Archie” since he was an egg. He hatched right around October 24 and is pictured on the daily reports for Nov. 8, Nov. 14, Dec. 26, and Jan.16. In today’s photo Archie is just over four months old. I am sure that “Archie” will be gone from his nest site in a matter of days, and after that there will be absolutely no way for me to tell him apart from the tens of thousands of juvenile red-footed boobies soaring around Genovesa. I am thrilled that I got to see him one last time today! It certainly has been both fun and interesting to follow his development over these past four months.
Today we visited the beautiful ”Bird Island”, and therefore we saw birds, and many of them. Land birds, sea birds, many breeding, many nesting, and some just walking and flying around. One of them must be mentioned, a young red-footed booby almost ready to fly. Another booby we have watched growing up for several weeks by now. Lynn Fowler, one of our Polaris Expedition Leaders, has been sending periodic pictures of it to the web site since it was a tiny hatchling. Therefore, I leave the rest to her.
Note added by Lynn Fowler:
I am on board the Polaris to take a Safety at Sea course that we all need to renew every five years in order to qualify for our seamen’s papers. It is great fun to be on the ship and not actually be working – though the safety course has kept us very busy! Today we had to jump off the upper level deck with our life jackets on.
This afternoon I snuck away from class for a few minutes, and went to shore to check on my favorite red-footed booby chick, “Archie”. I was delighted to see that he is still in great shape, a grown fellow now, and decked out in complete juvenile plumage. He had dirty feet though – so it seems that he is not yet flying or fishing on his own. He was preening as I approached, and had a single fluff of down stuck to his beak.
For those of you who have seen “Archie” mentioned in some of my previous Daily Expedition Reports, you may recall that I have literally known “Archie” since he was an egg. He hatched right around October 24 and is pictured on the daily reports for Nov. 8, Nov. 14, Dec. 26, and Jan.16. In today’s photo Archie is just over four months old. I am sure that “Archie” will be gone from his nest site in a matter of days, and after that there will be absolutely no way for me to tell him apart from the tens of thousands of juvenile red-footed boobies soaring around Genovesa. I am thrilled that I got to see him one last time today! It certainly has been both fun and interesting to follow his development over these past four months.
