Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/05/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]i only remember being amazed at the grace and agility, in flight, of these birds over the sea ............ after walking among them, trying not to miss-tread! my guide was an old fisherman, who still delighted in the antics and told many a tale. thanks all, for the additional information. b. On 6-mei-2009, at 1:15, Henning Wulff wrote: > Between their wobbly gait on land and wide-eyed look, they do look > silly. On the other hand, as Doug mentioned they are amazing > flyers. The only fly in the ointment with the latter is that they > live together with frigate birds. Frigate birds, and especially the > Magnificent Frigate birds which are common on the Galapagos can do > aerial maneuvers that are hard to believe; they have the highest > wingspan to body weight ratio of any bird. They harass boobies and > tropicbirds until those drop the fish they just caught, and then > the frigate birds catch the fish before they hit the water. They > also rob each other, especially when a large heavy fish is the > prize. Frigate birds are like cormorants and anhingas; they don't > have water resistant feathers. They only dip into the water while > airborne. > > The boobies are also fantastic divers and swimmers. They might spy > a fish from 150ft. up, fold up into an arrow shape (their beak and > head work well for that) and dive straight into the water. They can > easily go down 40ft underwater, and swim after fish and catch them, > with a number of direction changes. The closely related gannets are > similar. > > It's quite an experience to be snorkeling and have some of these > blue footed, red footed and masked boobies dive down next to you > hitting the water at high speed and see them darting after fish. > One can only hope their aim is good. > > > > At 10:14 PM +0100 5/5/09, Peter Dzwig wrote: >> The term booby still exists in (UK) english, although these days >> it would be >> regarded as antiquated (like, for example, "popinjay". My 197x >> CHambers >> Dictionary gives: " A lubberly lout; a stupid fellow; a boy at the >> bottom of his >> class; a sea bird of the gannet tribe, absurdly easy to catch". I >> believe that >> the name was given to the bird by the Spaniards because it was >> clumsy ("stupid") >> on land and hence easy to catch. >> >> Peter Dzwig >> >> Tina Manley wrote: >>> At 02:32 PM 5/5/2009, you wrote: >>>> No, it's not sharp. But he didn't pose for any length of time. >>>> >>>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hwulff/various/N- >>>> SA00-090430096.jpg.html >>> >>> >>> Hilarious - and perfectly illustrates the name. >>> >>> From Wiki: The name "booby" comes from the Spanish term bobo, >>> which >>> means "Stupid" or "Fool"/"Clown". This is because the Blue- >>> footed Booby >>> is clumsy on the land. Like other seabirds, they can be very >>> tame.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-footed_Booby#cite_note-0> >>> [1] >>> >>> Tina >>> >>> Tina Manley >>> www.tinamanley.com > > > -- > > * Henning J. Wulff > /|\ Wulff Photography & Design > /###\ mailto:henningw at archiphoto.com > |[ ]| http://www.archiphoto.com > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information