December 14, 2006
Brown Boobies
This species is usually abundant in the plane, but we found very few with chicks this year. In the last couple of days, a large arrival of adults was noted along the beaches - maybe the breeding season is just a little late this year.
Adult in coconut palm.
Subadult in the plain.
Look closer, and you can see a large infestation of ticks in the facial skin below the bill and in front of the eye.
One of our jobs on the island was to de-tick some of the booby chicks - I was put in charge of catching the chicks and holding that dagger-sharp bill shut (I've got the scar to prove it). I found the whole process equally fascinating, stressful and repulsive. The burden of ticks on some of these birds is enormous, especially on the feet, where the ticks leave huge holes in the webbing between the toes. As you can see, some of the adult ticks get pretty big!
