Genovesa Island
Today, on Genovesa, we were surrounded by sea birds! It is nesting season for most of the inhabitants of this northern island. Sea conditions are cold, the fishing is good and there were baby birds everywhere. The great frigate colony has quieted: the cooing and fluttering that is associated with an inflated red pouch and courtship is over. The adults are now seated serenely on their flimsy twig platform nests, incubating their single white egg. Some frigate chicks have hatched and are either, tiny, weak and naked or perky fluffy white balls of hunger, like the fellow pictured here being protected by “Dad.”
The nocturnal swallowtail gulls have fluffy grey chicks that, when sitting motionless on the coral sand, look exactly like a guano splattered lava rock. The camouflage coloration of the chick protects them from the marauding of their neighbours, the frigates. The adult gulls, by feeding at night, avoid sharing their catch with piratical frigates that steal food from the diurnal boobies and tropicbirds.
The tree nesting red-footed boobies also had eggs and newly hatched chicks. Tucked among the red mangrove branches, their nests also hold only a single egg or young. Some of our guests had the incredible luck of getting to watch a tiny booby struggle out of the egg. The adult bird, ever so delicately, pokes and tends the fragile chick using its sabre-like bill with the utmost care.
After our morning walk we had a choice of snorkelling from the Zodiacs or swimming, snorkelling or relaxing from the beach. There is no prettier beach in the world to kick back and watch the thousands of sea birds soaring and going about their business and I was delighted that many guests chose to stay with me on shore until lunchtime.
In the afternoon we climbed the lava stairs at Prince Phillip’s Steps and strolled through a palo santo forest, along a trail between nesting Nazca boobies and to the edge of a storm petrel colony. Thousands of these, the smallest of the sea birds in Galápagos darting swiftly about above the lava tunnels where they nest. We have had excellent luck this week with both weather and nature sightings; our luck continued this afternoon and we spotted the short-eared owls that visit the petrel colonies and prey on them, if they can catch ‘em!
Today, on Genovesa, we were surrounded by sea birds! It is nesting season for most of the inhabitants of this northern island. Sea conditions are cold, the fishing is good and there were baby birds everywhere. The great frigate colony has quieted: the cooing and fluttering that is associated with an inflated red pouch and courtship is over. The adults are now seated serenely on their flimsy twig platform nests, incubating their single white egg. Some frigate chicks have hatched and are either, tiny, weak and naked or perky fluffy white balls of hunger, like the fellow pictured here being protected by “Dad.”
The nocturnal swallowtail gulls have fluffy grey chicks that, when sitting motionless on the coral sand, look exactly like a guano splattered lava rock. The camouflage coloration of the chick protects them from the marauding of their neighbours, the frigates. The adult gulls, by feeding at night, avoid sharing their catch with piratical frigates that steal food from the diurnal boobies and tropicbirds.
The tree nesting red-footed boobies also had eggs and newly hatched chicks. Tucked among the red mangrove branches, their nests also hold only a single egg or young. Some of our guests had the incredible luck of getting to watch a tiny booby struggle out of the egg. The adult bird, ever so delicately, pokes and tends the fragile chick using its sabre-like bill with the utmost care.
After our morning walk we had a choice of snorkelling from the Zodiacs or swimming, snorkelling or relaxing from the beach. There is no prettier beach in the world to kick back and watch the thousands of sea birds soaring and going about their business and I was delighted that many guests chose to stay with me on shore until lunchtime.
In the afternoon we climbed the lava stairs at Prince Phillip’s Steps and strolled through a palo santo forest, along a trail between nesting Nazca boobies and to the edge of a storm petrel colony. Thousands of these, the smallest of the sea birds in Galápagos darting swiftly about above the lava tunnels where they nest. We have had excellent luck this week with both weather and nature sightings; our luck continued this afternoon and we spotted the short-eared owls that visit the petrel colonies and prey on them, if they can catch ‘em!
