苹果树上结了只梨# LES - 同女之舞
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By Donna Littlejohn, LA Daily News
Posted: 09/29/13, 4:08 PM PDT |
blue-footed booby. Photo credit is Bill Steinkamp/International Bird Rescue
With their blue feet and goofy looks, it’s easy to see why “booby” —
from the Spanish word bobo, meaning fool or clown — became part of their
name.
And for the first time since the early 1970s, the blue-footed booby seabirds
from the Southern Hemisphere are being spotted as far north as Los Angeles
County.
Part of the pelican family, the birds deep dive into the ocean to feed. They
are awkward birds on land and have short legs and big, webbed “blue” feet
that range in color from pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine.
One of the birds even found its way to just south of downtown Los Angeles,
waddling along near Second and West Slauson avenues on Sept. 12 before it
was captured and brought to the International Bird Rescue Research Center in
San Pedro. The banded juvenile bird was released Tuesday from a boat just
outside the breakwater at the Port of Los Angeles.
It was the first blue-footed booby the center has treated. But staffers said
it probably won’t be the last.
“The birders are so excited, it’s like they’ve won the lottery,” said
Jay Holcomb, director of the center that opened in the spring of 2001.
The birds also have been spotted at Marina del Rey, San Pedro and Santa
Monica.
“They like to sit on the breakwater with the pelicans,” Holcomb said.
So why are the birds coming this far north?
Plentiful food — or at least that’s the leading theory, Holcomb said,
noting that the birds feed on fish and this has been a banner year for
sardines and anchovies in local waters.
“A lot of young birds have left the nest, so it’s not unnatural to go
north,” he said, especially in search of plentiful feeding grounds.
Simultaneously, Holcolmb noted that the center is not seeing the high
numbers of malnourished California brown pelicans as it has in past years,
which also could mean better food sources in local waters.
“We don’t have the massive numbers we had last year,” he said, adding
that the center has seen perhaps one-third of the numbers of pelicans.
The blue-footed booby, which inhabit tropical and subtropical islands, was
among the earliest species studied by Charles Darwin during his trip to the
Galapagos Islands.
The Galapagos Conservation Trust website says the blue-footed booby is “one
of the strangest birds in Galapagos.”
“At dawn, boobies can be seen setting out to look for shoals of small fish
such as sardines, anchovies or flying fish in the surrounding shallow waters
,” the website states. “They often dive ‘en masse’ at up to 60 mph.”
The bird brought to the center this month was underweight but otherwise
healthy and recovered well, staff said.
A video of the release shows the booby hesitating briefly as the crate door
is opened on the boat deck before spreading its wings and taking flight over
the ocean.
Posted: 09/29/13, 4:08 PM PDT |
blue-footed booby. Photo credit is Bill Steinkamp/International Bird Rescue
With their blue feet and goofy looks, it’s easy to see why “booby” —
from the Spanish word bobo, meaning fool or clown — became part of their
name.
And for the first time since the early 1970s, the blue-footed booby seabirds
from the Southern Hemisphere are being spotted as far north as Los Angeles
County.
Part of the pelican family, the birds deep dive into the ocean to feed. They
are awkward birds on land and have short legs and big, webbed “blue” feet
that range in color from pale turquoise to a deep aquamarine.
One of the birds even found its way to just south of downtown Los Angeles,
waddling along near Second and West Slauson avenues on Sept. 12 before it
was captured and brought to the International Bird Rescue Research Center in
San Pedro. The banded juvenile bird was released Tuesday from a boat just
outside the breakwater at the Port of Los Angeles.
It was the first blue-footed booby the center has treated. But staffers said
it probably won’t be the last.
“The birders are so excited, it’s like they’ve won the lottery,” said
Jay Holcomb, director of the center that opened in the spring of 2001.
The birds also have been spotted at Marina del Rey, San Pedro and Santa
Monica.
“They like to sit on the breakwater with the pelicans,” Holcomb said.
So why are the birds coming this far north?
Plentiful food — or at least that’s the leading theory, Holcomb said,
noting that the birds feed on fish and this has been a banner year for
sardines and anchovies in local waters.
“A lot of young birds have left the nest, so it’s not unnatural to go
north,” he said, especially in search of plentiful feeding grounds.
Simultaneously, Holcolmb noted that the center is not seeing the high
numbers of malnourished California brown pelicans as it has in past years,
which also could mean better food sources in local waters.
“We don’t have the massive numbers we had last year,” he said, adding
that the center has seen perhaps one-third of the numbers of pelicans.
The blue-footed booby, which inhabit tropical and subtropical islands, was
among the earliest species studied by Charles Darwin during his trip to the
Galapagos Islands.
The Galapagos Conservation Trust website says the blue-footed booby is “one
of the strangest birds in Galapagos.”
“At dawn, boobies can be seen setting out to look for shoals of small fish
such as sardines, anchovies or flying fish in the surrounding shallow waters
,” the website states. “They often dive ‘en masse’ at up to 60 mph.”
The bird brought to the center this month was underweight but otherwise
healthy and recovered well, staff said.
A video of the release shows the booby hesitating briefly as the crate door
is opened on the boat deck before spreading its wings and taking flight over
the ocean.
