February 19, 2018. Paradise Village, Mexico. The Magnificent Frigate Bird.

The birds are wonderful, soaring with almost no flapping of their wings.  Their tails are long and forked  so as you watch them, they tails open and close  so you know they are using their tail for changing directions.  As we sit on the balcony in the cool evenings before dinner, we are given a wonderful aerial show.  We see them at Playa Royale too,  but here we are  adjacent to the marina where the fishing boats come in every evening.  Perhaps that is why the birds are closer to us, sometimes flying right past us at eye level and close to our balcony.

The last time Rita and Ian visited us at Playa in 2016, Rita worked hard to take pictures of the birds but they were too high in the sky for good pictures.  Last evening she was determined to get a photo of the birds.  We were sitting outside enjoying their display.  Rita was standing by the railing trying to entice to birds to come close.  Of course, we had no idea what to do to get them to fly close to us but we did try.  Rita waited.  Then her phone rang and she went in to have a face time conversation with one of her quilting friends.  Unfortunately, the conversation lasted quite a long time.  All the while, the frigate birds were flying all around us.  Each time a picture opportunity appeared, we commented on yet another missed opportunity.  We laughed.   And told Rita that the birds will doubtless come close to us another evening.  Rita hopes so anyway.