Albatross Anecdote from Mexico

I keep remembering stories from Mary and Eddie's wedding in Mexico, stories that I would probably tell old friends and family in face-to-face meetings, if they were around in the moment I remember these specific stories. Bringing them here is pretty much exactly what this site started as: my anecdotes with the ether.

Anyway, one day we were down in the big pool. I was there, so it must have been past the main part of the day, since it would have been shady. I never ventured down to that huge main pool in full sun. Cass did, and spent so much time there he got his first really bad sunburn.

So on this particular day, something caught my eye up in the sky. It was a bird, and it was fairly high up, certainly soaring significantly higher than our five-story resort building. Big deal...so what?

Well, this freaking bird was enormous. This prehistoric beast with the outline of an ocean-going frigatebird looked like its body was a big as my large five-year-old son. Chances are low it was that big in reality, but, holy cripes, it was a giant.

It soared out of sight before I could get anyone else to see it, and I shook my head. No one would either believe me about how big I thought it was, or care that much anyway. 

The next day around the same time, late afternoon, it came around again. I think both Joey and Ron saw it and said, oh, yeah, that's that type of albatross they have around here. They said a worker at the resort or boating captain had mentioned it.

Moments ago I typed "Mexican albatross" into Google just to get an idea of what version of birdie it may have been, and the first picture that showed up was the exact outline I remember seeing:

It looks like this is a "magnificent frigatebird," which, while quite large and sharing with the albatross  the pelagic nature of its food source collection and general soaring technique, this bird is actually unrelated. Thinking that the outline was originally frigatebird-like gives me confidence in my growing sea-bird knowledge.

I also remember thinking that albatrosses don't share this wing silhouette. In any case: what a rad critter to see out its natural environs!