23rd February 2020: Marina Ballena boat trip

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It was a beautiful sunny day as we set off on a whale watching trip from the Marina Ballena National Park. Although we did not see any whales it was a thoroughly enjoyable excursion. The sea was calm, making for a relaxing journey. We encountered several pods of Spotted Dolphins which leapt and danced in front of the boat and also a few parrot turtles swimming at the surface.

We stumbled across a small fishing boat, which had also attracted the attention of these lovely Brown Pelicans, who floated expectantly at a short distance, bursting into action as unwanted fish were thrown back into the sea.

We also found a group of Brown Boobies together with two Red-footed Boobies (one shown here on the right) and were able to slowly edge in quite close to observe them bobbing along on the surface.



Next we noticed a piece of driftwood, shared by a Brown Booby at one end and a Royal Tern at the other. Again, we were able to get in very close and drift alongside these birds, who appeared completely undisturbed by our presence



Other highlights included flying fish which intermittently appeared alongside the boat, shimmering silver in the glittering sunshine. Frigate birds soared overhead and a Wandering Tattler, an uncommon migrant wader, was seen on the rocks of a small island. We arrived back in time for lunch, wading from the sea to a scorching sandy beach lined with palm trees - a tropical paradise!




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