Blurry picture I know, but my camera does not have image stabilizing, and the bird was moving fast, and, and, oh yeah, and my hands shake a lot too ....
Anyway, I just thought Id dedicate this post to these amazing and beautiful birds. For me, they are the quintessential symbol of a tropical beach resort holiday taken in the Northern Winter.
They are quite large birds (Id guess at about 1.5 metres across) but if you have ever seen them up close, they are incredibly light weight and fragile too - very delicate.
They are amazing flying machines and are able to make use of the smallest amount of lift. They fly without flapping their wings in almost any direction (against the wind) at will and are up there thermaling earlier and later than any other birds.
They also seem almost never to land to feed. They always do fly-by snatch and grabs of any floating food they see.
I'm a pilot of sorts and I really appreciate the flying skills these birds have and I just plain enjoy seeing them in the sky. When they are around, I know I'm very near a beautiful tropical beach somewhere with nothing to do but relax.... Ahhh!
