Genovesa Island
Today we visited a wonderful island, which is only 5.4 square miles. Despite its size, it is full of wildlife. There are thousands of birds living on this small place: frigate birds, Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies, gulls, and storm petrels, as well as many others species. Our guests were really pleased to see a few frigates with their beautiful red pouches fully inflated. Now we are at the end of the frigates mating season. Most frigate birds are incubating eggs and others already have chicks. This island is such an overwhelming place for many of us. It is often hard to know where to concentrate your attention. In one place there is a red footed booby, somewhere else a frigate male showing off his gleaming pouch, and right next to them a small fluffy ball (a baby booby!) so cute you can not believe it.
To top the day off, this afternoon during our walk along the cliff-side of the island, we were amazed to find a short-eared owl right by the trail. It was so close that we stayed there for a long time enjoying this special sighting. This owl was so cooperative that it did not fly away, on the contrary, it was as if it was posing for the pictures. It was great to observe its behavior. The owl made some movements with its head indicating curiosity and then started to scratch its belly. In the end, we were completely satisfied and decided to leave it alone after a great show.
Today we visited a wonderful island, which is only 5.4 square miles. Despite its size, it is full of wildlife. There are thousands of birds living on this small place: frigate birds, Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies, gulls, and storm petrels, as well as many others species. Our guests were really pleased to see a few frigates with their beautiful red pouches fully inflated. Now we are at the end of the frigates mating season. Most frigate birds are incubating eggs and others already have chicks. This island is such an overwhelming place for many of us. It is often hard to know where to concentrate your attention. In one place there is a red footed booby, somewhere else a frigate male showing off his gleaming pouch, and right next to them a small fluffy ball (a baby booby!) so cute you can not believe it.
To top the day off, this afternoon during our walk along the cliff-side of the island, we were amazed to find a short-eared owl right by the trail. It was so close that we stayed there for a long time enjoying this special sighting. This owl was so cooperative that it did not fly away, on the contrary, it was as if it was posing for the pictures. It was great to observe its behavior. The owl made some movements with its head indicating curiosity and then started to scratch its belly. In the end, we were completely satisfied and decided to leave it alone after a great show.
