Wildlife in the Bay
06 March 2012 | Tenacatita
By Gina
The wild life continues to entertain us. Dolphins come into the bay, and at least one likes to visit different boats and rub up against the anchor chain. Those hard to reach itches must drive those poor dolphins crazy! We've also discovered the mexican raccoon called the Coati. They are not nocturnal like the regular ol' raccoons. James and I discovered them while kayaking and sat and watched them converge on the rocky shoreline scrounging for food, squeaking away. It was fun to watch at a distance, but I wouldn't want to meet one up close! Rick and I get a kick watching the birds and their antics. Here in the bay we have pelicans; some brown and some with white heads and what appears to be a brown mohawk that runs from the top of it's noggin down it's back. There are also Frigatebirds and Cormorants.
There is a resident brown pelican, obviously on the mature side of life, that has a broken beak. Pelicans beaks are quite long and half of his upper beak is missing, poor little guy! He has the sweetest brown eyes and I'm sure he's had an interesting life. A life that may come to an abrupt halt if he doesn't stop roosting on our swim step, covering it entirely with stinky, messy, guano! I believe he was there all night on one occasion. I woke up a few times & glanced out the aft port holes & saw his brown furry noggin. We tried to shoosh him off but to no avail. He was still there in the morning, sitting happily in his mess! We finally shooshed him for good, cleaned up the mess, and blocked off the swim step to deter any attempts of future sleepovers!
Frigatebirds, I have learned, are also called War Birds or Pirate Birds. They obtain most of their food on the wing and a small amount of their diet comes by robbing other seabirds. You'll never see a Frigatebird land in the water. They swoop down either to snatch a fish out of the water or from another birds beak.
Cormorants are the swimming birds and are definately the least dominant of the group. They swim underwater for quite some time before popping back up, often successful, with a fish bigger than you'd think they could handle! They have to be leary of their overbearing Pelican & Frigatebird neighbors who will dive bomb them , snatching their fresh catch right from their beak. If they see them comming, they'll quickly dive under, surfacing much later in a completely different location. On one occasion, Rick and I witnessed this little Cormorant working away at a fish in it's beak, finally getting it down the gullet, when a pelican swooped down and grabbed ahold of the Cormorant's scrawny neck with it's massive beak & started choking him! The pelican was jerking back and forth, back and forth, working that recently half-swallowed fish out of the Cormorants throat, finally dislodging it into the air before landing in the mouth of that greedy pelican! So not right! But hilarious to watch.....and the little cormorant suprisingly survived. So I guess we can say that story had a happy ending!