Tower Island
We have left the metropolis of the Galápagos province, the town of Puerto Ayora, and now it’s time to head north toward Tower Island, a well known place for sea bird colonies. Indeed, as soon as we set foot on shore we encountered one the most beautiful gulls on earth, the swallow-tailed gulls; great frigate birds and of course the only species among boobies in these islands with prehensile webbed feet, red footed boobies. At this time of year you can see that the vast majority of them with eggs, while others have chicks just showing their downy plumage.
Genovesa Island is such a nice place. You can just watch how they behave, get to know who is who, who is related to whom. At the end of the long walk, the price paid was worth it. It was a spectacular view of the whole of Darwin Bay, and a bird from paradise or red-billed tropicbird attempting to land on the cliff right in front of us. Of course we were like paparazzi trying to get a decent picture of him, and some people finally managed. For tropicbirds it is a “must” to nest on cliffs since they are very clumsy on land, so from the high cliffs they just jump off to fly.
We have left the metropolis of the Galápagos province, the town of Puerto Ayora, and now it’s time to head north toward Tower Island, a well known place for sea bird colonies. Indeed, as soon as we set foot on shore we encountered one the most beautiful gulls on earth, the swallow-tailed gulls; great frigate birds and of course the only species among boobies in these islands with prehensile webbed feet, red footed boobies. At this time of year you can see that the vast majority of them with eggs, while others have chicks just showing their downy plumage.
Genovesa Island is such a nice place. You can just watch how they behave, get to know who is who, who is related to whom. At the end of the long walk, the price paid was worth it. It was a spectacular view of the whole of Darwin Bay, and a bird from paradise or red-billed tropicbird attempting to land on the cliff right in front of us. Of course we were like paparazzi trying to get a decent picture of him, and some people finally managed. For tropicbirds it is a “must” to nest on cliffs since they are very clumsy on land, so from the high cliffs they just jump off to fly.