Genovesa Island
This morning’s first sighting left even me speechless! A huge female humpback whale and her baby were spotted just a few meters off our stern as we lay peacefully at anchor in Darwin Bay. This week it almost seems that the whales and dolphins are following us!
We were still eating breakfast, so we finished up quickly and all headed off in the Zodiacs for a closer look at the whales. We were not disappointed: they surfaced very near us and we had a great look at their odd dorsal humps.
We made a wet landing on a lovely white coral beach and were immediately surrounded by nesting seabirds. Great frigate bird chicks were drooping on their messy stick nests in the warm morning air. The chicks snapped to life, begging and shrieking when the adult birds swooped in to feed them. In the mangrove shrubs, red-footed boobies were gathering nest material, courting and incubating eggs. Some males (like the one pictured here) had not yet convinced a mate to join them. One red foot stretched and stood just long enough for us to glimpse its tiny, featherless chick; the first hatchling we have seen this season.
This week’s voyage is over; our guests are delighted with what they have seen and experienced. We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing the wonders with them. They know they have been fortunate, because we have rarely seen so many species of marine mammals in so short of a time. They will be leaving tomorrow, to return to the “real world” and the lives they are accustom to. This will be my “real world” for another three weeks: I certainly do know that I am a lucky woman to be working in these “Enchanted Islands”!
This morning’s first sighting left even me speechless! A huge female humpback whale and her baby were spotted just a few meters off our stern as we lay peacefully at anchor in Darwin Bay. This week it almost seems that the whales and dolphins are following us!
We were still eating breakfast, so we finished up quickly and all headed off in the Zodiacs for a closer look at the whales. We were not disappointed: they surfaced very near us and we had a great look at their odd dorsal humps.
We made a wet landing on a lovely white coral beach and were immediately surrounded by nesting seabirds. Great frigate bird chicks were drooping on their messy stick nests in the warm morning air. The chicks snapped to life, begging and shrieking when the adult birds swooped in to feed them. In the mangrove shrubs, red-footed boobies were gathering nest material, courting and incubating eggs. Some males (like the one pictured here) had not yet convinced a mate to join them. One red foot stretched and stood just long enough for us to glimpse its tiny, featherless chick; the first hatchling we have seen this season.
This week’s voyage is over; our guests are delighted with what they have seen and experienced. We have thoroughly enjoyed sharing the wonders with them. They know they have been fortunate, because we have rarely seen so many species of marine mammals in so short of a time. They will be leaving tomorrow, to return to the “real world” and the lives they are accustom to. This will be my “real world” for another three weeks: I certainly do know that I am a lucky woman to be working in these “Enchanted Islands”!
