Gone Fishin'

For the Birds - Avian observations from the beerfloat.calm world

Gone Fishin' – by Corliss Buenavida

You may have noticed; I'm a bit of a bird brain.

A few years ago, I was vacationing in Mexico and decided to spend some of my time in the Tulum area. Of course, I visited the local ruins and did all the touristy things one should do in the Mayan Riviera and Yucatan Peninsula but I also took a day trip to the Sian Kaʼan Biosphere Reserve.

Our group was taken out in a private boat with a guide to see some amazing natural habitat and animals. My favourite was watching an Osprey and as we found out later, also the rest of the family.

An Osprey is a bird of prey, sometimes referred to as a Sea Eagle or Fish Hawk but it is neither a hawk nor eagle. In fact it is the sole member of its own family in the avian realm and goes by the Latin name, Pandion haliaetus. They are found on every continent that isn’t cold all year round so you may have seen one. Remember the time you saw a bird flying by carrying a fish in a streamlined grip, that was him!

“So, what does this have to do with a beer float”, you ask?

Well as it turns out with a little begging and some greasing of the wheel, we were able to obtain special permission to get into our floats for a drift as long as we stayed fairly close to the boat. Dangling feet and crocodiles have a way of being in the same place, at the same time, in these regions.

So we are out on the open water of a large lagoon, most of us with compact waterproof binoculars (obvi) and our beers of choice (even more obvious), mine being a Tecate on that day. We had seen crocodiles earlier in the mangroves and iguanas sunbathing on upper branches and a small variety of birds. Then as if investigating our strange flotilla this osprey shows up with a fly by over our fleet. We think he is headed to the pseudo-shore where the mangroves meet the lagoon, but he makes a 180 degree turn and heads back our way to do some fishing.

If you haven’t witnessed this activity, the osprey will face into the wind and hover with whatever necessary flapping is required to stay in a near stationary position while they survey the water some distance below. If they see a fish near the surface which fits their menu plan then they will go into a dive, often straight down with wings folded back. Just before reaching the surface of the water, their wings unfurl for heavy breaking and the big, sharp talons uncurl as they penetrate the surface of the water to grab the unsuspecting aquatic vertebrate.

Well, this osprey was clearly an expert and not afraid of the nearby armada because he caught a big one on his first dive and it was literally right in front of us. As happy as he must have been with his large lunch, we were whooping and hollering at our own great fortune to have witnessed this so close at hand. A toast was in order!

It didn’t end there though because with the direction of his attack he had to take flight right overtop of us, so we saw him adjusting his grip as he gained elevation to get the fish into alignment for his best aerodynamic departure. Some of us actually felt drops of water raining down upon us from his capture. Why does this Tecate taste so fishy?

Now that he had a good grip, he was on his way to the local dining establishment which as it turned out was actually the family dwelling. We put our paddling skills into full gear to follow his flight to a spot a little further down the lagoon where he alighted on a nest we had spotted earlier but thought was not in use. In fact, two eager youngsters had been waiting patiently for a meal and were now more than willing participants in the flesh tearing ceremony. A second adult also appeared from over the horizon to join the festivities. What a family get together. Cheers again! No fishy taste this time, I had been restocked by our supply boat.

We stayed out for a while longer to luxuriate in the afternoon rays and take in a few more sights (and brews) but nothing was going to come close to this great osprey family sighting.

I hope you get to witness something similar whether from shore or once you are comfortable enough to get out for a float in the wild environs, but if not, there is always YouTube!

Float with nature!

Corliss

beer float.calm = beerfloat.net not beerfloat.com