The grey feathers of flamingos turn pink in the wild because of a natural pink dye they obtain when feeding on shrimp and blue-green algae. The wetlands and lagoons in Bonaire provide a rich amount of food for these animals.
In the bird rehab in the South of Bonaire we saw the younger flamingos kept there to have grey feathers. The Mangrove Info Center opened the Wild Bird Rehab as a bird sanctuatry to provide a home for the island’s sick or injured birds.
Able to fly for weeks on wind currents, frigatebirds spend most of the day in flight hunting for food. Their main prey are fish and, as in this case, squid, caught when chased to the water surface by tuna – or privded by a fisherman. They occasionally rob other seabirds for food.
I have never seen so many squids. At the Tugboat Beach in Curacao there seemed to be several families with adult animals and children that were swimming in the shallow water.
The Tug Boat (Lotsenboot) Beach is said to be the best snorkelling site in Curacao. It is snorkelling in an industrial area, right next to a huge dock and possibly a ship that stays there for maintenance. However, there is a nice bar and in a depths of only three meters deep you find the sunken tugboat.
An old man was feeding Iguanas (Leguane) at the Tug Boat Beach in Curacao. He knew that the smell of moisture atracts these herbivorous lizards. And I knew that Iguanas are commonly eaten in Curacao, as soup or stew (Eintopf). I asked wether he eats them, an he answered: “This is Curacao”. I took that for a yes.
The largest lagoon in Curacao, Spanish Water, is used by boats and marinas, tourist resorts and golf clubs. There is, however, some nature left, and its vegetation is dominated by cactus that grows in this subtropical but dry climate. The Caracara is a bird of prey and a scavenger, often found sitting on a cactus.
Spanish Water is a sheltered lagoon in Curacao surrounded by mangroves, a carribbean “hurrican hole”. Orincoco is stationed there this summer. Many small mangrove trees, growing in brackish water, are nearby. It is easy to spot a lot of animals there, including Brown Pelicans, Snowy Egrets (Silberreiher). They are resting there after a day of hunting. Bare eyed pigeons (Nacktaugentaube) are also common.
The Little Egret (Egretta garzetta, Seidenreiher) feeds in the tidal wetlands of Rabat’s city river Bouregreg , but also does not hesitate to search food in the city garbage
During low tide fiddler crabs (Uca pugilator, Sandfiedlerkrabbe) abandon their holes in the muddy wetlands. They ingest particless of mud. Males have one extra large pincer.
We did again encounter bottlenose dolphins (Tümmler) – a school of thirty or more followed us for half an hour. Only few species of birds visit the sailor on the open ocean, a hundred miles or more away from land. One of those are Cory’s Shearwater (Puffinus diomedea, Sepiasturmtaucher). They breed on land, but live on the ocean. As in North France, Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus, Basstölpel) occasionally showed up. By the way, it was a brilliant passage from Rabat, Morocco to the Canary Islands. Good winds, moderate atlantic swell and four dark nights without moon, but with a clear sky and the milky way.
Cory’s Shearwater (Puffinus diomedea, Sepiasturmtaucher):
Northern Gannets (Morus bassanus, Basstölpel):
See gulls do not only follow fishing boats looking for the left overs (link), but they also know how to catch their own fish. This yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis, Mittelmeermöve), observed in Rabat, however, encountered a problem. It caught a rather large fish. Fish should be swallowed head first always.
