Aladdin's adventure onboard m/t Nord Supreme

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E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

“The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Norden's position, strategies or opinions. All views are my own”

Aladdin's adventure on board m/t Nord Supreme

Wednesday 1 ^st of November 2023 and we are heaving up the anchor at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and we are soon on our way south towards La Libertad in Ecuador. We have received discharge orders and it looks like we will discharge in to four different ships at La Libertad.

Engineer on the bridge

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Thursday 2 ^nd of November 2023 I had 3 Nazca Boobies together with 10 Brown Boobies. The Nazca Boobies was first ID as Masked Booby, but when it got lighter, I could see that the bill was orange and thus it is Nazca Boobies and not Masked Boobies.

Bad news: I thought that the boobies was feeding on fresh fish (LIVE) only. But one Nazca Booby landed on the water and 10 seconds later a Brown Booby landed next to it.

They started to feed on some floating garbage, luckily enough they gave up very soon and returned to the front of the boat.

A little later I spotted one Nazca Booby looked to be in trouble in the water. Flapping its wings like an eagle in the water and I studied the bird with my binocular. Turned out it was fighting with a Brown Booby for a fish.

A little later and one bow wave broke over the birds, no need to worry. Both birds made it and it looked like the Brown Booby took home the fish they had been fighting over.

When I came on the bridge at 16:00 I counted to 31 boobies, including 3 Nazca Boobies. After a while I spotted a lot of black dots on the sea, turned out to be Brown Boobies and I was a little disappointed, but if it would have been any other birds, I would not have been able to ID them.

At 18:30 it was dark and most of them was in the forward mast to spend the night. But they must have good eye sight as there were still 11 boobies hunting in front of the boat in the dark.

Poor picture, kept just because it was a RARE BIRD ALERT with 40 Brown Boobies. The mast is full of them, and the Nazca boobies were also a RARE BIRD ALERT.

Boobies preparing to spend the night on board

Poor picture, kept just because it was a RARE BIRD ALERT. There were 7 in total, 5 sitting forward and 2 hunting. On this poor picture we can see at least 3 Nazca Boobies.

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Friday 3 ^rd of November 2023 and at 05:35 and I can see that the forward mast is full of sleeping boobies. I can see one Nazca Booby that have started to hunt in front of the boat in the dark, thanks to the white colour.

When I had daylight, I could see at least 9 Nazca Boobies at the same time. And at least 30 Brown Boobies, driving me crazy trying to count them flying around. But there was 20 + sleeping in the mast overnight. Most of the Brown Boobies are the same as reported yesterday as they slept on the boat.

And I could spot at least 3 Peruvian Boobies, seen at the same time and this was the first time to see a Peruvian Booby for me.

Coming on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I counted 50 to 60 different boobies in front of or on the boat. Most of them Brown Boobies.

The mast is full of the Brown Boobies, but as we will arrive to La Libertad tomorrow morning, I expect them to disappear when we come close to land.

There were at least 17 Nazca Boobies that I could count while seeing them together. Many were perching on the gunwale forward so it was kind of easy to count them. So, the Brown Boobies were in the mast and the Nazca Boobies were sitting on the gunwale below.

Now I have also noticed a different between the Nazca and Brown Boobies:
- Nazca Boobies fish like a Gannet, diving straight down, creating a "WHITE PILLAR" going down towards the bottom of the ocean.

- Brown Boobies dive straight down, just above the water they level out to fly above the water for a few meters and dive with a very small angle creating a "WHITE PILLAR" going horizontal just under the water surface

There were at least 11 Peruvian Boobies, seen at the same time. First time I see Peruvian Boobies and I have studied them and compared with the Brown Boobies and Nazca Boobies.

The Peruvian Booby flying in formation like geese. Riding the wind and it looks nice when they all move in the same direction at the same time. The Nazca and Brown Boobies are flying around.

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Saturday 4 ^th of November 2023 and we are at the pilot boarding ground when I come on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning. We are waiting for the health authorities to come on board to clear the ship before we can get the pilot.

There are 6 Brown Pelicans fishing next to the boat and we still have 2 Nazca Bobbies and 5 Brown Boobies on the fo'c's'le and I was surprised. Bosun and one OS was forward to prepare the anchors and I had expected the boobies to have been flushed.

We drop the anchor around 7 o'clock and we will see when the first ship is coming for the STS operation. Last information is that the first ship will come at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.

Sunset at La Libertad anchorage, Ecuador

Sunset at La Libertad anchorage, Ecuador

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Monday 6 ^th of November 2023 and we left La Libertad in the afternoon. We were supposed to have left yesterday evening but there were some problems with the documents shore. Shore has our port as Esmeraldas and we are in La Libertad so no port clearance.

m/t Zamora left La Libertad yesterday afternoon and we are leaving today. We will do an STS operation with m/t Zamora and the weather is too bad here for the STS operation. (The sea is like an windmill pond) So we will do the STS in Punta Arenas

Coming on the bridge in the afternoon and we were entering Golfo De Guayaquil and I could report a few birds to eBird.

Sunset over Golfo De Guayaquil, Ecuador

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Tuesday 7 ^th of November 2023 and we were anchored at Punta Arenas when I came on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning. New schedule again and we will discharge 50.000 bbls to Maria del Carmen IV and she will arrive in the afternoon.

We will discharge 200.000 bbls to m/t Zamora tomorrow.

m/t Maria Del Carmen IV coming along side

We started to discharge to Maria Del Carmen IV at 19:06 and we completed discharging at 22:00. And she could only take 36.000 bbls and we will discharge 220.000 bbls to m/t Zamora tomorrow morning. Maria Del Carmen IV will stay until tomorrow morning when she will depart at 6 thirty.

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Wednesday 8 ^th of November 2023 and we expect m/t Zamora to arrive around 9 o'clock and I went on the bridge at 9 and I could see m/t Zamora approaching. We had first line at 09:24 and m/t Zamora had all fast one hour later.

There was a lot of Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans that I could report to eBird.

m/t Zamora approaching

m/t Zamora approaching

m/t Zamora coming alongside

m/t Zamora coming alongside

m/t Zamora alongside

m/t Zamora alongside

I spotted one bird on the bridge wing when I was going down to the CCR again and I managed to get a few poor pictures. I managed to ID the bird as a Snowy-throated Kingbird.

There was Frigatebirds sitting in our mast and also sitting in the mast on board m/t Zamora.

Snowy-throated Kingbird

Snowy-throated Kingbird

Snowy-throated Kingbird

Magnificent Frigatebird

Magnificent Frigatebird

Magnificent Frigatebird

The Snowy-throated Kingbird was a first for me and I also spotted one ringed Kingfisher, a huge kingfisher landing on m/t Zamora. So, it was two new birds for me. but the kingfisher was too far awa for any pictures with m Scooby Doo camera.

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Friday 10 ^th of November 2023 and we are leaving Golfo De Guayaquil behind when I come on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning. The Ecuador operation had been much quicker than anticipated. 3 STS operations:
1) Maria Del Carmen IV
2) Zamora
3) Maria Del Carmen III

My ticket has arrived, I will fly from Panama via Amsterdam via Bangkok with KLM. Not a flight I am looking forward to. Anway, the first booby arrived, at least I spotted the first booby at 6 thirty. It was a Peruvian Booby.

Brown Booby

Nazca Booby

Brown Booby

Brown Booby

Peruvian Booby

30 minutes later and there were 4 Peruvian Boobies + one Nazca Boobies and two Brown Boobies. And I tried to get some pictures of the Brown Booby as this was a Rare Bird Alert even though this is the bird I have seen the most of.

No good pictures, but it is obvious that it is a Brown Booby.

+++++++++++++++
Saturday 11 ^th of November 2023 and we are steaming north on course of 017 ° towards Panama when I come on the bridge at 4 o'clock in the morning.

I could see the boobies flapping their wings every now and then from 04:40. We have a small light in the front mast showing forward so I can usually not see it. But the light reflected in the wings so I saw flapping wings and it was pitch dark around the wings.

10 boobies forward, 3 with red feet confirmed and one Brown Booby. And at 06:25 I had a Brown Booby flying out from the anchor and returning to the anchor after less than a minute. And it did a couple of runs like this and it might have been different Brown Boobies, but 2 sighted at the same time, the one in the mast and the flying.

At 06:45 the first Red-footed Booby took of and returned to the mast after 30 seconds.

I never seen boobies behaving like this before, usually they wake up before day light and they are preening and some good morning stretching and they start to hunt. But at 7 o'clock the Brown Boobies had done several trips from the anchor and now they were hunting.

But the other boobies were sitting in the mast taking short flights, less than a minute and they returned to the mast. At 8 o'clock I had 2 Brown Boobies and one Red-footed Booby hunting and the rest was in sitting in the mast.

Franklin's Gull

Franklin's Gull

20 minutes before I went down from the bridge, I spotted another bird and I discovered that it was a gull through the binoculars. I was happy, I can put something else than boobies on my eBird checklists.

But I had no clue what gull it was but I was lucky and I got a picture, a very poor picture. I ID the gull as a Laughing Gull with the help from my books. But I sent the pictures to www.birdforum.net to confirm my ID.

I was soon getting the ID from bidforum, it was a Franklin's Gull I had seen.

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Sunday 12 ^th of November 2023 and we are steaming north in the Gulf of Panama when I come on the watch 4 o'clock in the morning. When the day light is breaking I can see 30 ++ boobies sitting in the forward mast.

And when it was light enough, I could confirm one Nazca Booby and 5 Brown Boobies.

The rest was not possible to ID in the dark. Most likely the same Red-footed Boobies that had been with us yesterday sleeping on the boat. At 06:00 they all took off at the same time starting to hunt in front of the boat. And 20 minutes later, BOOM. all took of south at the same time. Leaving only 5 Brown Boobies behind.

Same last time, the Nazca Boobies left when we approached shore. At 8 o'clock I had 18 Brown Boobies in front of the boat hunting for fish.

We dropped anchor around 10 thirty and we expect my reliever to come on board around 11 o'clock or so and he can have some sleep while I discharge our slop. Slop barge arrived around 11 thirty and still no sign of my reliever.

eBird Trip Report

Since April 2023 eBird offer a new feature, to create Trip Reports. At least this is when I first heard of this feature and I have decided to make the eBird Trip Reports instead of my list of OBSERVED birds.

And of course, this also means that I will HAVE TO go back and do the same for my old birding adventures, WHEN I HAVE THE TIME!

Today's Trip Report: Galena Park, Houston to Ecuador via the Panama Canal and back to Panama | Click HERE

Download | PDF

Lifers
Icons for lifers used in the eBird trip reports

Species lifer:First time that someone observes a species in their life

Photo lifer:First time that someone photographs a species in their life

Audio lifer:First time that someone audio records a species in their life

Exotic species
Exotic species flags differentiate locally introduced species from native species.

Naturalized:Exotic population is self-sustaining, breeding in the wild, persisting for many years, and not maintained through ongoing releases (including vagrants from Naturalized populations). These count in official eBird totals and, where applicable, have been accepted by regional bird records committee(s).

Provisional:Either: 1)member of exotic population that is breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years, but not yet Naturalized; 2)rarity of uncertain provenance, with natural vagrancy or captive provenance both considered plausible.

When applicable, eBird generally defers to bird records committees for records formally considered to be of "uncertain provenance". Provisional species count in official eBird totals.

Escapee:Exotic species known or suspected to be escaped or released, including those that have
bred but don't yet fulfil the criteria for Provisional. Escapee exotics do not count in official eBird totals.

My reliever came on board around 3 o'clock in the afternoon together with the new AB. I was just completing the slop discharge. I expect to be at my hotel in the early evening and I had found a restaurant with Brazilian BBQ on internet yesterday.

There was a couple of them but Os Segredos Da Carne looked to be the best and I have planned to have my dinner there tonight.

But it was 8 thirty in the evening before I came off the boat. I was leaving with the Service Technician that had repaired one of our radars and he was very late.

Well, my flight is tomorrow evening and you just need to click HERE to find out if I make it back home to Bangkok again.

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