Masked Booby Action Shots

My San Diego-destined ship sailed north off the coast of the Baja California Peninsula, just a short distance past Cabo San Lucas. The arid, mountainous coastline was visible but a far distance to the east on yet another clear and sunny day: standard weather during my week-long Christmas cruise. We were still in booby territory, which we wouldn't leave until sometime overnight when we had passed halfway up the peninsula. As a result, my cruise's sea day was not going to be limited to books, meals, and naps; the sport of action bird photography was on the agenda.

Boobies are common seabirds in tropical regions around the world. The masked and brown varieties are especially easy to spot on Pacific Ocean cruises off the west coast of Mexico and into the Sea of Cortez, where another species, the blue-footed, is resident. On my recent cruise, I mostly observed masked boobies.

Sailing north that morning, I was lucky to observe a group (technically known as a hatch, trap, or congress) of at least six masked boobies gliding and diving off the starboard side of my Holland America ship, the Koningsdam. From my vantage point on the outside promenade deck, I identified two mature individuals among the hatch.

Soaring, skimming and dropping, the boobies could have been synchronized in their flights that circled an area that spanned the great length of the ship. I heard the "ach ach" vocalizations of the birds: in my imagination, the adults calling instructions to the less experienced immature boobies.

The birds' wings remained mostly fixed, hardly flapping, instead relying on subtle bends, contractions, and extensions to ride the drafts and winds created by the ocean atmosphere and my towering, lumbering cruise ship. If similar air currents persisted across all the Seven Seas, it's no wonder that boobies and their cousins the gannets can live for so many months of the year away from land, conserving energy by deftly navigating the winds.

I also observed the birds easily floating on the ocean's surface. However they weren't resting but were instead dining after making death-defying dives into the sea with a distant underwater fish in their sights. Trying to catch these sudden falls on camera was nearly impossible so I've had to content myself with partial, blurry images of these prey-seeking missiles and the resulting explosion of sea water.

My camera remained focused on the boobies as they downed their meals and took off from the waves, trotting along their liquid runaway and flapping their wings before becoming airborne. A fascinating but tricky subject, the birds were the ultimate target for my lens; hopefully their own skillful hunts were equally rewarding.