We delayed leaving Reykjavik yesterday, cos the wind was so bad and the Captain wanted to keep the ship out of the worst of it. We left port close to midnight, and the ship rocked about like a good 'un. It was a bit easier this morning, but still a bit rough and windy out.
Looking out of the balcony at lunchtime and we saw this bird. I could not work out what it was - I knew I knew it, but it didn't make sense. When I checked the RSPB book, there were no birds anything like it.
"It looks like a Booby", said Peter. "I know", I said, "but there aren't any Boobys this far north."
But it was a Brown Booby - I recorded it on iNaturalist - it was the most northern record on the system. It was either blown this way or travelled on another ship. Either way, it's a tropical bird and definitely not used to the weather around Iceland.
It looked healthy enough, and after spending all it's time resting and preening, it left the ship around 4.30pm the next day, midway between the Faroe and Shetland islands. I think it had waited for the wind to die down, that and the fact it spotted a gannet or two, and probably followed them to wherever they were roosting. Cool eh?
No comments:
Post a Comment