While the Captain dropped the anchor in the submerged caldera of Darwin Bay at the island of Genovesa or Tower, I ate a quick but hearty breakfast. The crew lowered a Zodiac and motored me into shore where I climbed a cliff via irregular steps made of lava and hiked across the flat volcanic terrain. I had sunscreen, two towels to sit on, 3 liters of water, binoculars, a book about Darwin to read and the ship's digital camera, and I was going to spend the day on a "stake-out" in front of the frigate chick that has been tended by a male masked booby for the past nine weeks.

We were determined to find out who was feeding the chick: the confused masked booby that we have seen been seeing with the chick, or his frigate parents?? Nothing happened between 7:30 and 12:25 - then the masked booby "Fabio" (as we had previously named him) flew in and landed next to "Andrea" the frigate chick. They greeted each other with a friendly looking mutual preening bout and then each went into a self-preening spell that lasted several minutes. I eagerly snapped pictures and forgot for a while how hot and stiff I was after sitting for 5 hours in the equatorial sun on the hard lava rocks. "Fabio" waddled away from "Andrea" after only a few minutes, picked up a twig and tried to present it to another frigate chick that was nearby on a nest in a low bush. Then, to my complete astonishment, he took a circle flight right over my head and landed in the nest which contained the second frigate chick! This chick screamed and snapped his beak at the masked booby intruder. "Fabio" gently tried to preen the chick's head and the young bird screamed and rejected his attentions.

To make a very long story short (and as I was there watching that male masked booby and his two frigate chick friends for 10 hours today, the story is long) I don't think that Fabio is actually feeding those frigate chicks. Rather it seems that he is just, somehow, confused or so desperate for a mate that he approaches his nearest neighbors who happen to be frigate chicks. Just before sunset, and as the Captain was calling me to return to the ship because we were preparing to sail, a male frigate came in from the sea and was extremely agitated to find the masked booby in his nest, beside his chick. He flew furiously at the booby, the chick nodded his head and begged to be fed but unfortunately I had to leave before the booby was ousted. I assume that the male frigate would eventually force "Fabio" out and feed his young. We still don't know who is feeding "Andrea" the chick who has fallen out of her nest but is growing up just fine seated on the ground. We plan to do another "stake-out" next week to see if we can't find out a little more about what is going on.