Española Island
Most Galápagos naturalist guides have a soft spot for this island, for it is the home of the endemic waved albatross. And so we woke up with a certain anxiety, since it is this time of the year that these magnificent birds return to Española, after at least six months at sea. Mind you, some stay away as long as six years. Last week the naturalists of Lindblad spotted only two species; how many more would there be this time?
But before we found out, we had an extensive morning schedule. We started early, before sunrise and breakfast, with a sea kayak tour along the cinder cliffs of Gardner Island. There was practically no wind, a light swell, the tide was at its lowest, and we spotted finches, sea lions, snappers, shear waters, storm petrels and pelicans. It was nice to be there so early. After breakfast, we disembarked for a snorkel along the same cliffs, focusing on macro photography. We saw barnacle blennies, bravo clinids, hieroglyph hawkfish, soft corals, and sea -urchins. It’s not easy to concentrate making a macro shot of these animals, when juvenile sea lions scoot by and demand attention!
After a warm shower and changing into dry clothes back on board we left the ship again for a walk on the most pristine beaches of Galápagos, called Gardner Beach, where sea lions easily outnumber people, where green sea turtles nest, and where Hood mocking birds come up to you and interrogate you in the form of gangs. Don’t be surprised to feel surrounded by four or more mocking birds coming at you as soon as you open your water bottle. People used to give them water from their palm of their hands. This made a good picture but the mocking birds learned to relate people with water and therefore we conditioned them, so nowadays we tell everybody to NOT give mocking birds water.
In the afternoon we went to see the actual albatross colony in Punta Suarez. The first part of the walk was in dense vegetation because of the rains due to the El Nino effect and we saw plenty of mocking birds, Galápagos doves, ground finches, warbler finches, cactus finches and even a Galápagos Hawk.
There were more than 50 individuals of waved albatross. We even saw some landing, which is quite unique, and just knowing that so few were there last week opposed to so many now made us really excited. We spent a good hour watching these magnificent birds. We wanted to stay longer, but had to get moving, since over here the sunset is fast and it turns dark quite quickly, plus the mosquitoes that attacked us all afternoon started to really pick on us. Once we returned to the ship we felt all privileged to share that special moment of the arrival of the wavered albatross, knowing how special it is to witness that. We spotted more than 50 individuals; what good luck!
We felt content with everything; animal, fellow travelers, fellow naturalists, crew and wished that things wouldn’t change. That on itself is quite special!!!
