Española Island
What a fantastic day! It is so nice to be back in my home islands. I could not believe the dramatic change undergone during my absence: a real transformation in terms of vegetation. They are now green and lush, compared to the usual dry and arid conditions reigning here. The explosion in the vegetation and the production of flowers and fruits mean one thing, the cycle of life has come around once again, and it is now the turn of all terrestrial organisms to live through their populational boom. The archipelago’s terrestrial inhabitants will start to reproduce at this time, when the land is productive and food is abundant. All our land bird species, of which over 85% are endemic, have started with their breeding cycles. It is wonderful to hear the finches doing their mating calls, see Galapagos doves performing their courtship behavior, yellow warblers building their nests and so on. All this also implies that the main terrestrial predator of the islands, the Galapagos hawk, has a great variety of food sources available to it.
During this morning’s excursion, we came across one of these impressive birds just six feet from the trail and whilst we were admiring this king of birds, a mockingbird landed right beside the hawk and began to mock, showing absolutely no concern or fear in the presence of the raptor. Our guests could not believe what they were seeing, a little bird so completely unafraid of this majestic raptor. Likewise, the hawk itself was completely unafraid of us as we came closer to take some pictures, bringing in mind the astonishment of one of the archipelago’s earliest visitors, Charles Darwin, when he nudged a Galapagos hawk off a branch with the butt of his rifle, only to have the bird look back at him as if to say “what was that for??”
This was a classic example of the kind of adaptation that makes the islands so famous. There is no other area of the world where it is possible to see such behavior between predator and prey.
What a fantastic day! It is so nice to be back in my home islands. I could not believe the dramatic change undergone during my absence: a real transformation in terms of vegetation. They are now green and lush, compared to the usual dry and arid conditions reigning here. The explosion in the vegetation and the production of flowers and fruits mean one thing, the cycle of life has come around once again, and it is now the turn of all terrestrial organisms to live through their populational boom. The archipelago’s terrestrial inhabitants will start to reproduce at this time, when the land is productive and food is abundant. All our land bird species, of which over 85% are endemic, have started with their breeding cycles. It is wonderful to hear the finches doing their mating calls, see Galapagos doves performing their courtship behavior, yellow warblers building their nests and so on. All this also implies that the main terrestrial predator of the islands, the Galapagos hawk, has a great variety of food sources available to it.
During this morning’s excursion, we came across one of these impressive birds just six feet from the trail and whilst we were admiring this king of birds, a mockingbird landed right beside the hawk and began to mock, showing absolutely no concern or fear in the presence of the raptor. Our guests could not believe what they were seeing, a little bird so completely unafraid of this majestic raptor. Likewise, the hawk itself was completely unafraid of us as we came closer to take some pictures, bringing in mind the astonishment of one of the archipelago’s earliest visitors, Charles Darwin, when he nudged a Galapagos hawk off a branch with the butt of his rifle, only to have the bird look back at him as if to say “what was that for??”
This was a classic example of the kind of adaptation that makes the islands so famous. There is no other area of the world where it is possible to see such behavior between predator and prey.
