Caribbean adventure (Tortola)

                                            
                      

                                               Royal Tern

                                            Successful catch.

                                             Magnificent Frigate bird.

                                   Pirates of the skies.

                                     Brown Pelican surrounded by the shoals.

                                      Trying for lunch.

With the winter weather heavily upon us, we decided to head for some guaranteed sunshine to the West Indies.Again, like this time last year, we embarked on a 2 week cruise of the Caribbeaan Isles.Cruising lets you see so much in a short space of time.First port of call was Tortola,which means Turtle Dove, not really much to do there only to head for the beach for the day.A real bonus for me was the amount of birds on show,although not a lot of different species there,  it was a mecca for Brown Pelican,Frigate bird and a few Royal Terns.These birds were here for one reason only and that was to feed.The shallow warm waters were alive with huge shoals of fish.The downside was I had left my 400mm lens on board ship and had only a 70-300mm zoom lens with me.Luckily the birds came quite close for me to catch some of the action.Whilst my wife and daughter lazed on the sunbeds,I was busy following the birds.The Pelicans were usually successful on their forays and would plunge from the sky head first into the mass of fish,coming to the surface with the bill pouch full to the rim,the water would sieve out of their bill, leaving them to swallow their catch.The Terns on the other hand were more subtle on their approach and would skim the surface picking off the odd individual fish.The frigate birds tactic was to wait while a tern had caught fish then ambush it and relieve it of its catch.It was an enjoyable afternoon in the sun and I`ve posted a few shots of the action.