Española Island
It is an exciting time of the year to come to the Galápagos. Today we visited Española Island, a fascinating island due to its peculiar wildlife and topography. Weather conditions were great, the sun was shining and the air temperature was almost perfect. There were many Galápagos sea lions greeting us by the landing site. Among them we observed several small and very cute new born sea lions. They were a real delight for all of us. We kept walking on a rocky terrain until we found a group of prehistoric-looking creatures, the endemic and colorful Española marine iguanas. A very large colony of sea birds make this island their home; waved albatrosses, Nazca boobies, red-billed tropicbirds, swallow-tailed gulls were seen everywhere. We observed land birds as well, like some of the famous endemic Darwin finches, Galápagos doves and the Española mockingbirds. Española Mockingbirds are extremely fearless and curious birds; they often follow people during the walks. Today especially, the mockingbirds were very friendly – one of them even landed on top of the head of one of our surprised guests. The little girl was so excited with this out-of-this-world experience, that she was paralyzed with joy. The rest of the group was as stunned as the girl was. We witnessed a wonderful proof of the ecological naiveté of the animal inhabitants of the Galápagos. It is extraordinary to have the rare opportunity to see animals so close and totally unafraid of humans. It is just hard to explain.
It is an exciting time of the year to come to the Galápagos. Today we visited Española Island, a fascinating island due to its peculiar wildlife and topography. Weather conditions were great, the sun was shining and the air temperature was almost perfect. There were many Galápagos sea lions greeting us by the landing site. Among them we observed several small and very cute new born sea lions. They were a real delight for all of us. We kept walking on a rocky terrain until we found a group of prehistoric-looking creatures, the endemic and colorful Española marine iguanas. A very large colony of sea birds make this island their home; waved albatrosses, Nazca boobies, red-billed tropicbirds, swallow-tailed gulls were seen everywhere. We observed land birds as well, like some of the famous endemic Darwin finches, Galápagos doves and the Española mockingbirds. Española Mockingbirds are extremely fearless and curious birds; they often follow people during the walks. Today especially, the mockingbirds were very friendly – one of them even landed on top of the head of one of our surprised guests. The little girl was so excited with this out-of-this-world experience, that she was paralyzed with joy. The rest of the group was as stunned as the girl was. We witnessed a wonderful proof of the ecological naiveté of the animal inhabitants of the Galápagos. It is extraordinary to have the rare opportunity to see animals so close and totally unafraid of humans. It is just hard to explain.
