Wherever one turns in these waters, one will never cease to be fascinated by the diving boobies. They drop out of the sky and hit the water like speeding bullets, submerging up to twenty feet before turning and catching their prey, usually fish, on the way up.
Today we watched as blue-footed boobies from the colony on Hood Island courted, mated, and incubated eggs. Sadly they were also abandoning their eggs. We all enjoyed the booby dance, (dancing boobies pictured here) and there were lots of 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' when the male proceeded to mount the female. But between last week and this we noticed a number of abandoned nests, and can't help wondering whether yet again, the boobies will have a nesting failure this year. Since the El Niño of 1997/8, the blue-foots have unsuccessfully attempted to breed no less than five times. These birds and many other animals often take a couple of years to recuperate after such an event.
Nesting failures are quite normal. They provide us with a way of measuring the productivity of the surrounding waters. This year's low productivity seems to be a local problem around Hood. Elsewhere in the islands the blue-foots have been successful. Blue-footed boobies, like most sea birds, have a great longevity. They can live between twenty and thirty years and can therefore withstand several years of breeding failures. Judging by the sheer amount of them in Galapagos waters, they have to be one of our most common sea birds.
