Galapagos - Day 8: Genovesa and Darwin's Bay

We left the people and cars of the Galapagos behind on Santa Cruz to return to unspoiled nature again. Today's destination is Isla Genovesa, but the British call it Tower Island. No wet landing this morning, and the excursions don't start until the late late hour of 8am!

Unfortunately Baba was still feeling pretty bad (with a crazy bad sore throat - hurts to even drink water), so I went off on this one by myself. The zodiac landing took us to Prince Phillip's Steps. Normally at home I get about 20+ flights a day so I was very happy to finally get some stairs in!

Genovesa is THE island for bird watching. You literally walk right by the birds -- if you're not careful you might even step on one. They seem to have zero predators here, so it was common to see frigate birds, red-footed boobies, blue footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, storm petrels, and tropicbirds all hanging out on a single beach.  Check out how close we could get to these birds!

I got quite a biology lesson on birds here -- maybe you all know this, but turns out the boobies are born with no feathers, so they look almost like leathery little reptiles, then within a week, they develop a full body of fuzz -- like in the picture below, that pill of fuzz under the mama bird is actually a one-two week old baby!

Here's another photo of a "baby" that is likely getting to five weeks old - at that point, they have developed their adult feathers and have shed/plucked off all the fuzz. Though color wise they'll still be in juvenile phase -- for example their feet won't be as brilliantly colored yet -- that won't happen until they're fully grown and ready to mate themselves. 

This was a great time of year to visit because we are basically at the end of the dry season awaiting the beginning of the rainy season. So the birds who live off of the plants and insects generally timed their mating season to give birth now, as there soon will be an abundance of green (with the accompanying insects) to sustain new babies. The babies were so cute! They obviously can't fly yet, so I'm told they do this shaking thing with their necks to regulate some of their body heat.

However, it also gave us a first hand look at the natural selection process. Our guide explained that each boobie usually lays two eggs and then waits to see which one hatches first - or if they hatch at roughly the same times, which one is slightly bigger or healthier. They then just totally discard the second one -- if it's in egg form, they just stop incubating it. 

If it's in hatchling form, they might even kick it away out of the nest. It seems a little cold hearted, but the bird must have realized through their centuries of evolution that they aren't capable of providing enough safety and food to sustain two chicks. Here's a photo of the sad side of natural selection:

To the boobies' credit though, they are VERY attentive to the chicks that are selected. They stay by them almost constantly - helicopter parents for sure. 😆 

I think this the bird version of watching your infant try to walk. 

This was Yeye's dream of an island for bird photos. He mentioned several times how much he wished he had come out here to the Islands a few decades ago -- so much good material for biology classes! 

Nainai meanwhile has been going to every single photography session they've had on the ship - I think there have been at least 3 already -- soon she's going to be a master wildlife photographer. Look at the risks she's willing to take for the best shot!

We even managed two sightings of the short eared owl - allegedly quite a rarity. 

I really wanted to see the great frigate birds with their scarlet puffed out chests -- unfortunately we were told that will only happen during their mating season. Alas. Slightly dull orange-red will have to do. Here's a close up from Yeye's powerful zoom. 

By comparison, this is what I can manage without sacrificing sharpness from my Pixel:

Beyond the birds that were just sitting around, it was also impressive how close the flying birds would get to us. Allowed me to take some really nice wingspan shots.

Here's a video to help showcase how the skies were just filled with so many different birds:

After the morning hike, we did a super fast wardrobe change and then headed off for another round of snorkeling. We were snorkeling in Darwin's Bay today and the temperature here was a full 3-4 degrees warmer than the location yesterday. So even though Baba was out of the count, I found myself a new dive buddy and went underwater exploring again. Here's my dive buddy Emily placating my penchant for cheesy posed shots with the fur seal. 😆 

I didn't have much more success with the underwater pouch though -- here's my best stop of the shark. It was so much more impressive in person. 

I did better with the octopus...ok fine this is a stock photo. But someone else in our dive pod did report seeing one of these. I hung around for a minute or so but eventually gave up. 

My coolest spot of the snorkel trip was probably the eel. It was so much thicker/fatter than I was expecting! Alas, no photo proof. 

After a warm shower and some very tasty lunch (grilled whole chickens -- really yummy), we listened to a presentation about Charles Darwin (it was very well done...but the after lunch hour is hard for any educator -- I saw several people nodding off). 

Our last activity of the day was another nature walk on Darwin Bay beach. The beach landing was actually a little tense because the sunning sea lions had basically claimed the entire beach. We had to step carefully in-between them. 

This island is actually devoid of any land reptiles, which meant that the cactus plants here evolved to be not-prickly prickly pears. You could actually brush them back and forth and it felt like a rough brush. 

Here's a shot of our guide for today - Christian. Christian's father is actually a fisherman on Santa Cruz. The fishing licenses are passed down in families - they cannot be sold and can't even be given to cousins or nieces -- only direct sons and daughters of the fisherman. The idea is that eventually, they want there to be no more fisherman I guess?

This field was FULL of birds. I didn't even capture all of them. Christian (jokingly? Who knows?) said they were gathered for a group fishing lesson. 

He actually just picked up a feather from the ground and started waving it in the air and that apparently was like a traffic control signal for them to all immediately take flight!

This seriously could be a Disney movie...one single boobie was left. Perhaps because he was afraid of flying or didn't know how yet...? Eventually one or two birds came back to join him so he wasn't completely alone. 

More shots - a pair of juvenile boobies here. 

The less celebrated but still pretty cool full grown red-footed boobie:

Here's a good example of boobie parents raising their young -- they were picking up twigs and rocks and feeding it to the baby -- almost like when you give a baby a rattle so they can work on their fine motor skills! 

Shot of the yellow-crowned night heron. Our guide kept remarking that it was so odd these guys were out already because they're supposed to be nocturnal...maybe evolution working as we speak?

Fun game -- how many birds can you find in this mangrove tree? I found at least 3, maybe 4. 

Great nature walk again...ending with yet another obstacle course water entry sidestepping all the sea lions. I like this shot because if you look closely, every adult mama sea lion here has a baby sea lion next to her waiting patiently (or sometimes impatiently) to feed. 

And that is the end of yet another wildlife day here. Sadly Baba is still pretty sick feeling so he missed a very tasty duck breast entree at dinner too. Tomorrow is our last full day on the ship -- hoping for a sudden recovery!