Española Island
Seventy albatross! Starting early in the morning at daybreak, we were up and counting on this first day of December. The Galápagos waved albatross is on its way south for the holidays, but obviously not all of them just yet!
Our morning was spent visiting the northern coastline of Española. It has a beautiful, long white beach covered with what looked like brown sausages roasting out in the sun…well, actually, sea lions were sleeping under a cloudy sky. Sea lions were also playing in the water with snorkelers and popping up alongside kayakers as they traveled the lava coast.
In the afternoon the albatross appeared in unexpectedly high numbers for so late in the season. But pairs were performing their courtship routine before separating, reinforcing the pair bond by planning to meet again back here in April on Española Island. Nazca boobies were sparkling white with black edging and "masks". Swallow-tailed gulls stood red-legged and black-hooded in the breeze. The Galápagos hawk perched regally on the National Park Monument, disdainful of the chirpy jeering of the mockingbirds nearby.
Blue-footed boobies courted and were found nesting along the cliffs, as well as on the beach where we landed at Punta Suarez. It seems out of season for them to be taking such a gamble on raising a family when warm water (and therefore less nutrients) is expected in less than a month from now. Perhaps they can feel something we cannot in the cool up-welling waters currently present in the archipelago. In the next instant, a mockingbird was seen running off with nesting material, a sure sign of the coming rainy season. But who are we to argue with a million years of evolution and adaptation to the foibles of nature?
Seventy albatross! Starting early in the morning at daybreak, we were up and counting on this first day of December. The Galápagos waved albatross is on its way south for the holidays, but obviously not all of them just yet!
Our morning was spent visiting the northern coastline of Española. It has a beautiful, long white beach covered with what looked like brown sausages roasting out in the sun…well, actually, sea lions were sleeping under a cloudy sky. Sea lions were also playing in the water with snorkelers and popping up alongside kayakers as they traveled the lava coast.
In the afternoon the albatross appeared in unexpectedly high numbers for so late in the season. But pairs were performing their courtship routine before separating, reinforcing the pair bond by planning to meet again back here in April on Española Island. Nazca boobies were sparkling white with black edging and "masks". Swallow-tailed gulls stood red-legged and black-hooded in the breeze. The Galápagos hawk perched regally on the National Park Monument, disdainful of the chirpy jeering of the mockingbirds nearby.
Blue-footed boobies courted and were found nesting along the cliffs, as well as on the beach where we landed at Punta Suarez. It seems out of season for them to be taking such a gamble on raising a family when warm water (and therefore less nutrients) is expected in less than a month from now. Perhaps they can feel something we cannot in the cool up-welling waters currently present in the archipelago. In the next instant, a mockingbird was seen running off with nesting material, a sure sign of the coming rainy season. But who are we to argue with a million years of evolution and adaptation to the foibles of nature?
