Rain Rain Rain Rain

I was planning on getting around the island today, staring at some birds, not wasting time on a computer. However, we've been having a drenching rain for hours and I am stuck here again. Even the industrious Gary has retreated to his cave for an afternoon torpor-sesh. Anyways, there are worse places to be stuck on a rainy day....especially now that I have coffee-making capabilities at home. Liz is leaving until May so I inherited a bunch of her crap, which gratefully includes a primitive coffee-making device. Stoked.

Here are a few pictures I just took. Some of the adult albatrosses seem to be in to the rain and snap at the raindrops for a little drink. This is likely the source of the only freshwater they will drink in their entire lives (they can drink seawater and filter out the salt). It is also insanely cute. The chicks have only fluffy down though and are not waterproof in the slightest, so they end up just soaking it all up and looking miserable. The Fairy Terns (which is a far better name than the suburban-sounding "White Tern") will perch just about anywhere and usually elect to do so out of the rain. They decided to take the off time to make, sweet, sweet tern love a couple feet from my back door.



Note that its also squinting from having water in its eye, which almost maxes out cuteness possibilities.


I'm looking at this same chick through my window right now and it looks even more miserable than when this photo was taken.



Fairy Terns, post copulation, wondering what kind of sick pervert I was to watch them do it from a few feet away. But who knows, maybe they were into it?