Birds and Boats

 I always thought birds were blessed with a superb interior navigation system. Experience has proved this a mistaken theory. Little coastal birds often land on Wind Dancer, exhausted from flying miles in the wrong direction, headed out to sea. They know they are in trouble and their behavior is unique. Frightened and lost birds lose all fear of humans. They suddenly see us as fellow land creatures and seem to count on us to take them home again. The number of times a bird on land hopped onto my shoulder is exactly zero. On the other hand,  during our 20 or so extended cruises off shore, five birds have joined us, three of them ingratiating themselves by snuggling up like old buddies. This particular bird joined us 16 miles off the coast of Florida and alternating between our boat and others rode most of the way to Bimini.

Our longest staying guest appeared suddenly 70 miles from the central Florida coast as we were returning from the Bahamas to the US. This one caused all sorts of problems. He appeared dehydrated and hungry. Unfortunately, crackers did not seem to agree with his system. He must have been an insect or berry eating bird because the crackers caused massive diarrhea, which did not please the captain. He flew into the boat one night, refusing to be caught, finally he slept in the bathroom. This bird stayed with us for 2 full days, afraid to leave even with land in sight. Although as soon as the shores of North Carolina were visible, the bird was beside himself with excitement. He flew frantically back and forth between the boat and the shore, pecked at our fingers, hopped up and down our arms, and then disappeared at some point during the docking process. We always wondered if he enjoyed life in his new world.

This was our angry bird. He was not happy about his situation. He arrived about 2 hours before sunset, maybe 15 miles of the coast of South Carolina. He stayed  until dark, sitting in various places on the boat and on Rick's back and then disappeared heading toward the last rays of the sun, then about 25 miles off the Georgia coast. We hope he made it.

I had to add a new bird, an osprey, or sea hawk, which found our spreaders a good place to sit while looking for fish.