Isla Isabella

female frigate

Just Don and I, it felt good to have the whole boat to ourselves with a freshly washed teak deck. Headed for Isla Isabella or what was to be our first day of fun since we first set eyes on the boat, not a single repair, no entry on the to-do list or part list, nothing!  A day run. Only ninety nm to the largest breeding ground of blue footed boobies and frigate birds in the Pacific Mexico.


 Most restful water so far, just flat. Island in sight, I am camera happy. The island is three quarters of a mile long, no human residents, just passing through fishermen resting in camps. Enjoy the pictures.

                                                                                                                    







   

The walk through the National Park was almost surreal, a feeling of being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie without the eye gouging. Maybe fifty-thousand birds, one hundred thousand black eyes sensing and scanning our presence. The canopy of the garlic-pear tree they perch on is low and seems too weak to support the weight of so many. Wing span is two meters. They spread their wings to cool themselves in a shape that reminds me of a plié. I can touch them if I raise my arm, but I don't want to break the peace between bird and man.                                            

Unlike a walk through the orchards, I don’t hear the snapping of a pear tree twig and I don’t feel the squishing of a fallen fruit under my foot, no here I feel every round rock, I see holes everywhere on the ground on each side of the path wondering if earth dwellers would slither out to arrest my heart! It’s so hot. My feet slow down when approaching a white washed portion of ground and I look up to avoid an unpleasant air drop of… I don’t know what they eat or when they eat, hours observing them and all they do is fly and rest, seems heavenly.  I thank God for the gift of traveling and seeing beyond "my" pear trees at home.

Isla Isabella garlic-pear tree

male frigate

                                                                                                                                                                           

 Blue footed boobie

You can get so close to them, one wonders why they are so amenable at letting humans trespass

This small bird paradise reveals not so paradisical things from a bird’s perspective. The island seems to suffer from segregation, the frigates on one side with the thick vegetation and the blue footed boobies on the more rocky side.  Over the water, from the fly bridge of SpringDay I observe their own beautiful flights and then... oh not so beautiful, a sky war, a frigate chases after a boobie, nips (no pun intended) at it and pursues it until it has no choice but to crash sit on the water and wait. It does seem like frigates stay up in the air or on land. Wished I could have taken a video of this fowl play.

Iguanas had the same behavior as their winged occupiers, still and letting people step inches from them

One thing SpringDay and I are grateful about is my husband. I thank him for his perseverance in curing SpringDay, his determination to solve her problems and his efforts to keep me satisfied in my moments of ungratefulness. I love you.

Thinking of you...