340 : Lesser Noddy

Lesser Noddy - Anous tenuirostris

This is a real Indian Ocean specialist with a population of 1,200,000 birds scattered around the coats and islands. This picture was taken on a boating day trip around Mahe in the Seychelles while on holiday. We hired a motor yacht and headed out for a spot of site seeing one day. We made it right around the top of the coast to opposite Victoria the capital.

I am calling these as Lesser and not Brown Noddy's due to the extent of the ashy head - on a Brown Noddy apparently the paler crown ends at the nape whereas these seem to have a much broader covering. The bill is also quite fine. What we need is a Brown and Lesser Noddy next to each other but I am sure I have got this right.

There are huge colonies of these birds numbering in the tens of thousands scattered around the islands so it was no surprise to find quite large fishing parties of these birds. I love a spot of fishing myself and the technique that seemed to work best on the trip I did another day was to drive through the birds while trawling in order to pick up the Tuna ! The tuna obviously drive the smaller fish to the surface so fishing birds are a great indication of tuna further down.

Something feeds on everything - and where there are tuna there are dolphins.

Another one of life's rules is that it is always a good day if you see dolphins. This proved to be right. 

Soon after this pod went under the fun started ! Tuna literally jumping clear of the water to escape. 

Please don't get me onto Dolphin captures for water parks in Japan. It just hurts too much. I won't ever visit a dolphinarium in the future and I hope that you will take that pledge. If you don't understand why then take look at the pages of the various groups that publicise how these beautiful animals are caught for the trade and the butchering that goes along with it of the adult dolphins. It will break your heart.

I have to say though that the below is perfectly permissible and in fact to be encouraged - line caught tuna !

The above is a Bonito - my youngest Sam reeled in the mighty yellow-fin !

Very excited - and now you see why ! That means lunch will be something special.

I have never done this before butstraight after landing the catch I marched into the beachside restaurant and negotiated with the chef. Lunch was a bottle of beautiful South African Rose and possibly the most stunning pairing of seafood dishes in a long long while. This Sashimi was to die for. Utterly fresh and melt in your mouth - this was the yellowfin with a stinging wasabi paste and rich soy.

And this was I think the Bonito or part of it just served as simple grilled steaks - perfectly pink in the middle. Lunch is always an indulgence - especially with wine - its sets you up for a very lazy afternoon ! This was my favourite lunch ever - and I *love* lunch. 

Oh yes - birds ! So Lesser Noddys - I would view them as a good opportunity to get some decent lunch if you see them in numbers fishing.  I will remember that lunch for the rest of my life. Some days are *good* and this was one of them. We always fish on holiday if we can. Sustainably. I don't buy factory caught tuna, I take a note of stocks in respect of anything I eat. We are Haddock not Cod people at home and in the Gulf we won't buy Hammour as a rule (the cod like fish) given that it is in trouble. Nothing wrong with a line caught yellow-fin in the Seychelles as long as the chef is going to treat it with respect. Less is more - in our case no cooking at all - soy and wasabi.

You get the idea - birds, fish, beaches, dolphins, sashimi, bliss.

Lesser Noddy, Anous tenuirostris
Mahe, Seychelles
July 2016