We walked through the main shopping street of Puerto Ayora. We only bought some chocolate and a blue footed booby figure as the carry on luggage does not allow for the acquisition of large numbers of souvenirs. The shops sold standard tourist fare, lots of t-shirts, some nice art and of course a fine selection of artisanal chocolates. Both the quality of the product and the packaging were impressive. We continued to walk through town and reached the "Fish Market". Here they were cutting up the fresh catch and the birds were helping out. Frigate birds hunt on the wing and never land in the ocean. Their oil glands are small so they are lighter and can soar for hours but their feathers are not waterproof enough to be aquatic birds. So as we watched the fish mongers cut up the fish we saw a cycle of Frigate bird after Frigate bird after Frigate bird swoop by and grab fish parts to eat.
A great square of chocolate
Made from Cacao grown on the island of Santa Cruz
The town stretches out
Colorful shops
The Fish Market
Here comes a Frigate Bird
Then he is gone
I captured the entire fish bits grab sequence. Here the bird is on his approach.
Getting into position
He has made the grab
Fish bit in beak and ready to eat
Just that quick, the fish remains have been cleaned up!
Then another bird gets bits
Off he goes
and another
yummy
and it continued on like this until the pelicans got involved
Pelicans, ready to help!
a bit too close
Shoo!
All hell breaks loose!
