Dragon Hill, Santa Cruz Island and North Seymour
What an adventure! This has been the day of the land iguana. We saw this lovely creature during our hike, and along with a great blue heron standing on the lava, there were also lava gulls, American oystercatchers, common stilts, Galápagos mockingbirds and Darwin’s finches. During the Zodiac ride around Venecia Islets, our guests observed several black-tipped reef sharks, spotted eagle rays, mustard rays, blue footed-boobies, herons and plenty of mangroves.
There are not enough words to express how happy we were during these activities. As a conclusion of the morning, some of our guests decided to have a little swim from the Islander after dealing with the heat of the season. Although the heat is sometimes bothersome, it’s the main reason for our successful observations of land iguanas. As reptiles, they need heat for their activities such us mating and nesting. We spent nearly twenty minutes observing one particular land iguana, which climbed up a tree and jumped off toward another tree to reach its leaves!!
Right after landing on North Seymour Island in the afternoon there were Galápagos sea lions on the path, swallow tailed-gulls, magnificent frigates and blue-footed boobies. Walking along the beach we found a Galápagos snake and several more land iguanas!
North Seymour belongs to the group of islands uplifted from the bottom of the ocean along with Baltra, Mosquera Islet and the northwest coast of Santa Cruz Island, and reaches a height of nearly 90 feet.
We also observed several pairs of blue-footed boobies in courtship, very unusual for this time of the year, and although there were no eggs around, we did enjoy their displays, in particular their foot-raising, sky-pointing, whistling and honking!
What an adventure! This has been the day of the land iguana. We saw this lovely creature during our hike, and along with a great blue heron standing on the lava, there were also lava gulls, American oystercatchers, common stilts, Galápagos mockingbirds and Darwin’s finches. During the Zodiac ride around Venecia Islets, our guests observed several black-tipped reef sharks, spotted eagle rays, mustard rays, blue footed-boobies, herons and plenty of mangroves.
There are not enough words to express how happy we were during these activities. As a conclusion of the morning, some of our guests decided to have a little swim from the Islander after dealing with the heat of the season. Although the heat is sometimes bothersome, it’s the main reason for our successful observations of land iguanas. As reptiles, they need heat for their activities such us mating and nesting. We spent nearly twenty minutes observing one particular land iguana, which climbed up a tree and jumped off toward another tree to reach its leaves!!
Right after landing on North Seymour Island in the afternoon there were Galápagos sea lions on the path, swallow tailed-gulls, magnificent frigates and blue-footed boobies. Walking along the beach we found a Galápagos snake and several more land iguanas!
North Seymour belongs to the group of islands uplifted from the bottom of the ocean along with Baltra, Mosquera Islet and the northwest coast of Santa Cruz Island, and reaches a height of nearly 90 feet.
We also observed several pairs of blue-footed boobies in courtship, very unusual for this time of the year, and although there were no eggs around, we did enjoy their displays, in particular their foot-raising, sky-pointing, whistling and honking!
