Genovesa Island
It is day six on our Galápagos expedition on board the M/N Polaris, and it’s the beginning of a full day on the island of the birds. Today, we are back in the northern hemisphere. We crossed the equator line some time during the night, and the morning skies look bright and blue. The Polaris has anchored on the side of a huge caldera; one of its sides has collapsed to give way to the ocean waters. This is called Darwin bay. All along the walls of the caldera we can observe tall columns of basalt, where thousands of sea birds nest or roost. Genovesa Island is the home of some three quarter of a million birds, and we can certainly say we agree with this number!
Our first departure of the morning takes us to a wonderful little white beach. The color of this beach is given by its main component: calcium carbonate, or the remains of coral. Right behind the beach on the patches of vegetation, we discover a mosaic of birds: red-footed boobies, great frigates and swallow-tailed gulls, Nazca boobies amongst them. A male swallow-tailed gull was trying to impress a female by regurgitating a whole squid several times, and she seemed to be falling for it! The beach and the island are full of juvenile red-footed boobies, still depending on an adult parent, and we could find those juveniles between the bright glossy leaves of the red mangroves. They seem to be quite amused with us visitors, and did all sorts of tricks to impress us!
Back at the landing beach, a busy male Galápagos sea lion kept the watch over his territory, and young sea lions were trying to lure snorklers into playing in the water. But it was time to go back on board, so we had to wave goodbye to them!
The afternoon visit took us to Prince Phillip’s steps, still on Genovesa Island, but on the far side of the caldera. Genovesa seems to be enduring an extra long dry season, having missed the rains this year, and the vegetation of this island have been driven to extremes in order to preserve their stored moisture, spending minimum amounts of energy in producing foliage and flowers. The dry forest of palo santo trees will remain dormant until the next rains fall on Genovesa, but their nakedness made it easy for us to spot the numerous nests of red-footed boobies all around us. On the ground, Nazca boobies started to be very busy looking for a partner to share duties with in their coming breeding season.
A search for the short-eared owl proved unsuccessful, but the serenity of the landscape and a marvelous sunset made this a very special day in this little garden of Eden.
It is day six on our Galápagos expedition on board the M/N Polaris, and it’s the beginning of a full day on the island of the birds. Today, we are back in the northern hemisphere. We crossed the equator line some time during the night, and the morning skies look bright and blue. The Polaris has anchored on the side of a huge caldera; one of its sides has collapsed to give way to the ocean waters. This is called Darwin bay. All along the walls of the caldera we can observe tall columns of basalt, where thousands of sea birds nest or roost. Genovesa Island is the home of some three quarter of a million birds, and we can certainly say we agree with this number!
Our first departure of the morning takes us to a wonderful little white beach. The color of this beach is given by its main component: calcium carbonate, or the remains of coral. Right behind the beach on the patches of vegetation, we discover a mosaic of birds: red-footed boobies, great frigates and swallow-tailed gulls, Nazca boobies amongst them. A male swallow-tailed gull was trying to impress a female by regurgitating a whole squid several times, and she seemed to be falling for it! The beach and the island are full of juvenile red-footed boobies, still depending on an adult parent, and we could find those juveniles between the bright glossy leaves of the red mangroves. They seem to be quite amused with us visitors, and did all sorts of tricks to impress us!
Back at the landing beach, a busy male Galápagos sea lion kept the watch over his territory, and young sea lions were trying to lure snorklers into playing in the water. But it was time to go back on board, so we had to wave goodbye to them!
The afternoon visit took us to Prince Phillip’s steps, still on Genovesa Island, but on the far side of the caldera. Genovesa seems to be enduring an extra long dry season, having missed the rains this year, and the vegetation of this island have been driven to extremes in order to preserve their stored moisture, spending minimum amounts of energy in producing foliage and flowers. The dry forest of palo santo trees will remain dormant until the next rains fall on Genovesa, but their nakedness made it easy for us to spot the numerous nests of red-footed boobies all around us. On the ground, Nazca boobies started to be very busy looking for a partner to share duties with in their coming breeding season.
A search for the short-eared owl proved unsuccessful, but the serenity of the landscape and a marvelous sunset made this a very special day in this little garden of Eden.
