Lesser Frigatebird

Frigatebirds are not often seen off my local beach, they are usually soaring out over the ocean, occasionally on the reef islands. Except when there is cyclonic activity. We were slammed by TC Jasper on the 13th, but most of the damage was caused by the 5 days of historic rain when the system stalled over the Cape. The frigate birds seem to get pushed ahead of the cyclone, and head down the coast to roost until it passes. Every frigate bird between the Solomon Islands and Far North Queensland must have been here, and once the wind changed direction to be from the NE they started soaring back north along the coast. The first 2 or 3 days you could look up and see dozens, maybe up to 100 at any time, as thousands made their way back. Most of the time they were soaring fairly high, in the pouring rain. This image was taken 9 days after the cyclone, there were still a few stragglers, now sometimes fishing off the beach. Best I can tell this is a young female Lesser Frigatebird (Fregata ariel). its has the white 'armpits' which distinguish it from the also present Great Frigatebird, but the head of the young ones should be a rusty orange-brown, this one is almost white. This one had just caught a squid, and despite being hassled by 2 other frigatebirds, just swallowed the squid, that is one of the long tentacles that hasn't gone down.

ISO800, 300mm, f4, 1/4000, OM-1.

Click for better resolution, sorry for the long post.