Otoque and Bona Islands & Panama Canal
Yesterday we were expecting a little rough weather when we passed around Punta Mala or “bad Point” on the way in to the Gulf Of Panama. Luckily the sea was almost flat calm. Today, in Otoque and Bona islands, the coolest morning that we have had in this trip, we awoke with many seabirds around: brown booby, blue-footed booby, brown pelican, and magnificent frigatebird. Those seabirds breed in large colonies on these islands (where there are no mammal predators). Some of the birds breed on the cliffs and some in the top of the trees of the island.
This birds are nesting and feeding around the islands, because they have a lot food in the surrounding waters which is due to the up-welling that is a natural phenomenon which happens here in the Panama Gulf. The up-welling causes the nutrients from the bottom to come up to the surface where light can penetrate and photosynthesis occurs.
Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster ) usually do not range far out to sea and are most numerous around small offshore islands where they sometimes feed quite close to shore. Like many of the seabirds in the tropics they feed on fish, but also eat squids, and have developed a variety of ways to catch them, but mostly they plunge-dive from the air or surface. Females lay 1 or 2 eggs, which are incubated for about 45 days but usually a single chick survives to fledging age (one chick often pecks the other to death). The term “booby” apparently arose because the nesting and roosting birds seemed so bold and fearless toward people, which was considered stupid. Actually, the fact that these birds bred on isolated islands and cliffs meant that they had few natural predators, so had never developed, or had lost, fear responses to large mammals, such as people. After lunch we moved from the islands to the Panama Canal.
Later in the afternoon, we waited for the Port Captain, or “Capitan de Puerto,” to give the permission to start moving to the Canal. The Panama Canal is a “lock and lake canal.” A lock is like a large bathtub with doors at each end. When a ship enters a lock, the doors close, and the lock fills with water until the ship floats up to the level of the next lock. Like steps, the ship moves up from lock to lock until it reaches the level of the mountains running through the center of Panama. There, it has an easy trip through the Gatun Lake where we anchored for the night.
Yesterday we were expecting a little rough weather when we passed around Punta Mala or “bad Point” on the way in to the Gulf Of Panama. Luckily the sea was almost flat calm. Today, in Otoque and Bona islands, the coolest morning that we have had in this trip, we awoke with many seabirds around: brown booby, blue-footed booby, brown pelican, and magnificent frigatebird. Those seabirds breed in large colonies on these islands (where there are no mammal predators). Some of the birds breed on the cliffs and some in the top of the trees of the island.
This birds are nesting and feeding around the islands, because they have a lot food in the surrounding waters which is due to the up-welling that is a natural phenomenon which happens here in the Panama Gulf. The up-welling causes the nutrients from the bottom to come up to the surface where light can penetrate and photosynthesis occurs.
Brown Boobies (Sula leucogaster ) usually do not range far out to sea and are most numerous around small offshore islands where they sometimes feed quite close to shore. Like many of the seabirds in the tropics they feed on fish, but also eat squids, and have developed a variety of ways to catch them, but mostly they plunge-dive from the air or surface. Females lay 1 or 2 eggs, which are incubated for about 45 days but usually a single chick survives to fledging age (one chick often pecks the other to death). The term “booby” apparently arose because the nesting and roosting birds seemed so bold and fearless toward people, which was considered stupid. Actually, the fact that these birds bred on isolated islands and cliffs meant that they had few natural predators, so had never developed, or had lost, fear responses to large mammals, such as people. After lunch we moved from the islands to the Panama Canal.
Later in the afternoon, we waited for the Port Captain, or “Capitan de Puerto,” to give the permission to start moving to the Canal. The Panama Canal is a “lock and lake canal.” A lock is like a large bathtub with doors at each end. When a ship enters a lock, the doors close, and the lock fills with water until the ship floats up to the level of the next lock. Like steps, the ship moves up from lock to lock until it reaches the level of the mountains running through the center of Panama. There, it has an easy trip through the Gatun Lake where we anchored for the night.
