What was the rarest thing in nature- animal, plant or inanimate phenomenon- that you have seen in its natural place? How did it feel to see it for the first time?
In short, I think the courtship ritual of the waved (or Galapagos) albatross, a fairly large bird of flight that migrates thousands of miles, but only nests on one of the Galapagos, far to the south of the rest. Their courtship is pretty hilarious to watch- it involves the clacking together of their beaks, putting their long necks under their own wings, then staring straight into the sky while making a strange “woo-hoo” sound.
Though I saw rarer species in the wild in the Galapagos- I saw a young wild tortoise that wouldn’t come out of its shell; also I saw a flock of Lava Gull, which only has 800 adult members and is endemic to the Islands. But the dance is so spontaneous, so bizarre, so downright fun to watch and to laugh at, it’s just amazing. We have some video that I probably would have to berate my father to find, so I’ll just post up a YouTube video. Most videos have hysterical laughing in them- it’s really infectious and you’ll find yourself at some point imitating the albatross.
Unspoken Politics 