Española Island
Española is one of the islands that offer us the opportunity to see many different kinds of animals. This morning was full of surprises. Near the landing site we saw mockingbirds feeding on a fresh sea lion placenta, and beside the female sea lion with her new pup, we saw several yellow warblers hunting flies. Certainly we did not know what to look at or what to photograph, because at the same time some of the baby sea lions started to play with a marine iguana’s tail, and some of the lava lizards were doing their territorial display.
However, some birds landed near the shoreline, and they are the ones that got our attention because they are not very common, and not to be seen year round. They nest in North America spending the northern winter on the West Coast of South America. I am referring to the Franklin’s and laughing gulls. In the picture we can appreciate a group of Franklin’s gulls and in the middle, there is a laughing gull. We can tell them apart because the laughing gull is slightly bigger and generally darker on the upper parts with longer bill, which has a pronounced droop, flatter crown and longer legs.
Española is one of the islands that offer us the opportunity to see many different kinds of animals. This morning was full of surprises. Near the landing site we saw mockingbirds feeding on a fresh sea lion placenta, and beside the female sea lion with her new pup, we saw several yellow warblers hunting flies. Certainly we did not know what to look at or what to photograph, because at the same time some of the baby sea lions started to play with a marine iguana’s tail, and some of the lava lizards were doing their territorial display.
However, some birds landed near the shoreline, and they are the ones that got our attention because they are not very common, and not to be seen year round. They nest in North America spending the northern winter on the West Coast of South America. I am referring to the Franklin’s and laughing gulls. In the picture we can appreciate a group of Franklin’s gulls and in the middle, there is a laughing gull. We can tell them apart because the laughing gull is slightly bigger and generally darker on the upper parts with longer bill, which has a pronounced droop, flatter crown and longer legs.
