"Bobby" the Booby

One of the things we enjoy the most about this cruising thing is getting the opportunity to see all sorts of wildlife that the average person only sees in books and/or zoos. Since we spend a lot of time on the water, birds are a large percentage of that. Whenever we see a species that is new to us, out come the books and identification cards to find out what it is. In the Pacific Northwest the preponderance of birds were Sea Gulls of all sorts of varieties. Going down the coast, some of the feathered friends we encountered were Pelicans, Herons, Cranes, Egrets, Murres, and we even had a couple little Finch-like land birds come and rest on the boat for several hours off the Oregon coast. Now that we are in warmer territory, we see lots of Pelicans, Frigate Birds and Boobies. We have not been to Isla Isabella so haven't had the pleasure of seeing the Blue-Footed Boobies (yet) but Dietmar shared several photos they had taken during their visit.
Monday we headed out for a cruise up the coast to the lovely anchorage of Punta de Mita to hang out for a couple days. As we were getting ready to dinghy to the beach on Tuesday to look for shells, followed by a little lunch and swim, we glanced up to see a Brown Booby perched on the bowsprit of the boat. He did not seem the least bit concerned about the people moving around on the boat and was happy to comply with the request for a photo or two. We were excited to get an up close and personal look at this guy and when we left for the day he was still "standing watch". After several hours of exhausting activity we returned to the boat to find that "Bobby" was still in attendance. At first we were happy to see our new mascot but that delight soon turned to dismay. He had moved from the bowsprit to the top of one of the spreaders and in the process had managed to poop all over the boat! The solar panels were covered as was the aft deck, there were splotches on the bimini and everywhere on the deck. In addition, he had done a stellar job on the aft hatch which was open and in his enthusiasm he had even managed to get some spatters on my bed!
Needless to day, Bobby wore out his welcome quite quickly and when he returned this morning to say hello we promptly shooed him off. As we weighed anchor and turned back to La Cruz I believe I saw him heading for a large powerboat that appeared to be unoccupied.