February 10

Day 3: February 10

Genovesa Island. Visit Darwin Bay and marvel at the sheer number of birds along the many trails. Head to El Barranco in the afternoon to see the many types of boobies, including red-footed boobies.

Morning: Darwin Bay visit. Walk along the white coral sands of Darwin Bay surrounded by bustling sea birds. Follow the trail and see nesting frigatebirds, gulls, and boobies. Be sure to bring your camera to take some snaps of your new feathered friends.

Morning: Snorkeling in Darwin Bay. Visit this sunken caldera for a great snorkelling opportunity. See large schools of tropical fish swarming near the vertical walls, and if lucky, see manta rays, white-spotted eagle rays, sea lions, and hammerhead sharks.

Afternoon: El Barranco visit. Visit "El Barranco" aka Prince Phillip's Steps located on the southern tip of the island for an amazing wildlife watching opportunity. Hike up the steps to see a sea bird colony that is full of life including the breeding grounds for red-footed boobies and masked boobies.

Moon Guidebook - Genovesa Island, also known as Tower Island or even Booby Island, is famed for its abundant birdlife, notably the world's largest colony of red-footed boobies, but it takes some getting to - about 8 hours by boat overnight. The bay is actually a large submerged volcanic crater. Interestingly, there are no land reptiles on Genovesa, only a small population of marine iguanas.

Moon Guidebook - Darwin Bay Beach: After a tricky entrance into the bay, where you pass rocks decorated with graffiti from visiting ships, there is a wet landing onto the beach. A short trail (approximately 1.5 km round trip) leads inland to the mangroves filled with the nests of red-footed boobies and frigate birds. Masked boobies (aka Nazca boobies) and swallow-tailed gulls also nest here, and you may spot storm petrels and short-eared owls. The opuntia cacti you see on the trail are noticeably softer than on other islands. Scientists believe this is because the plants don't need to defend themselves against giant tortoises.

The rocking of the boat didn’t keep me awake for long; I had a pretty good sleep….. The boat moved last night from Santa Cruz Island to Genovesa Island. Breakfast at 6:45 this morning, and we left in the dinghies at 7:30 to go for a walk on the beach. Holy cow, man…. What a lot of birdlife we saw. Sea lions too – as soon as we got on the beach. There was this mama and nursing young ‘un close by and a baby tucked under some rocks such that I couldn’t get a picture.

Lots of swallow-tailed gulls in abundance, including some little chicks. The birds lay eggs right on the ground so we saw a few who looked like they were sitting on eggs. They prepare an area with a mixture of light and dark stones to help camouflage their speckled eggs.

Photo by Oswaldo

We saw many, many frigatebirds – male (with the red pouches), female (black heads & white chest), and juveniles (white head).

Photo by Oswaldo

This night heron was well camouflaged against the rocks.

Photo by Oswaldo

We saw three types of boobies today. Typical red-footed boobies (blue beaks), white red-footed boobies (blue beaks), and Nazca boobies (yellow beaks). The red-footed boobies like to hang out in the mangrove bushes. Nazca boobies nest on bare ground near cliffs.

Photo by Oswaldo

Photo by Adam

Photo by Oswaldo

Frigatebirds do not go in the water. Apparently their wings are not equipped to repel the water and they would drown. One might think this guy is drying out his wings, but more likely he has his wings spread to help regulate body temperature.

Other interesting notes about frigate birds (from the Moon Guidebook)..... The males inflate their red pouches to attract females in the mating season. Once inflated, the male spends the entire day that way, calling and flapping his wings at passing females, hoping to attract one to the nest he has built for her. Once the female chooses the best-chested male, they mate for life. The sight of the inflated pouches is one of the highlights of bird-watching on the archipelago. After mating, a single egg is laid, and both parents share the incubation duties for 7-8 weeks. After hatching, the young have to wait five months before they are able to fly and learn from their parents how to scavenge. Frigates don't reach maturity until age five. Frigate birds live mainly by stealing food from other birds. They have a wide wingspan that can reach over two metres, but they cannot swim. Instead, frigates harass other birds, particularly boobies, into coughing up their hard-earned meal in an unpleasant show of avian bullying; sometimes they even steal fish right out of a chick's mouth. However, they are very resourceful and sometimes catch flying fish from just above the surface. Frigates have also learned that humans are a good source of food and are often seen following fishing boats in the hope of scavenging scraps.

We also saw our first finch – a large ground finch, male (plain black colour), but I wasn’t close enough to get a good pic. And some cacti bushes in bloom.

There were a few sea lions in the water to bid us farewell.

Back to the boat for a break (and snacks). Then changed into snorkeling gear and got back in the dinghies. We motored close to the shore to the right of the beach we were at earlier. We were in the water for about an hour, and saw waaaay more fish than we did yesterday. I’ll have to refer to the book to check out the names of a few of them. We also saw a monstrous lobster and I just missed seeing an octopus. Very interesting! I should have taken up snorkeling years ago. The iPhone in a waterproof case doesn’t seem to be working very well. The touch-sensitivity seems to work fine on land, but doesn’t work so swell in the water. No to worry, though. Oswaldo was in the water with us and took lots of great pictures which he’ll share with us at the end of the trip. Unfortunately most of what he shared is in video format, so not really useful here.

Back to the boat for a snack, then a break, then lunch. The day is only half done! Two more activities this afternoon.

At 2 we left for another hour of snorkelling. Many of the same fish as this morning. We didn’t see any sea lions in the water, but saw quite a few resting on the rocks of the cliffs. Unfortunately I didn’t take my phone with me this afternoon, and Oswaldo wasn’t in the water. It’s great just to see the fish swimming around……….

After a(nother) snack we changed back into hiking gear and went looking for more birds. We had a dry landing at Prince Phillip’s steps (named for him because he visited there once). Up the stairs and saw tons of birds right away – frigatebirds, Nazca boobies, and red-footed boobies. The red-footed boobies and frigatebirds were generally in the bushes and the Nazca boobies were generally on the ground.

Here's what the Moon Guidebook says........ Prince Philip's Steps. Named in honour of a royal visit in the 1960s and also known as El Barranco, this site is near the tip of Darwin Bay's eastern arm. It is home to a large number of red-billed tropic birds and many frigate birds. The trail is about 1.5 km round-trip along the top of the cliffs. Masked and red-footed boobies nest here with frigate birds lurking nearby, ready to scavenge. It's also a good area to see Galapagos doves and sharp-beaked ground finches, also known as "vampire finches" because they peck away at boobies' tails. Storm petrels are also seen in large numbers, and occasionally you may spot the Galapagos owl.

Waiting for the ladies to arrive………….

Saw this little chick with its mom right at the start.

There were lots of Nazca boobies with eggs. Just about all of them had two eggs. One had one egg and one chick. Interesting fact........... due to low hatching success, they generally lay 2 eggs but it's common for only one chick to survive. Usually the chick that hatches first is bigger and becomes aggressive towards its sibling, excluding it from feeding and eventually starving it. Siblicide has been well studied in this species; the first chick is born around five days before the second and is larger and stronger by the time the second is born. It drags its younger sibling out of the nest, where it meets its demise.

We did see Mockingbirds as well, but they were too small and quick for me to capture with my camera. But - Oswaldo captured one............... He also got a picture of a Galapagos dove.

Photo by Oswaldo

Then came the red-footed boobies.

I love some of the juvenile frigatebird pics I got.

We saw petrels and tropic birds flying about on the far side of the island, but they were flying too high to get pictures of. Oswaldo was on a quest to find a short-eared Galapagos owl; a rare sight apparently. Our lucky day! We saw three of them. I never would have seen them on my own. They blended in so well with the rocks around them. All the photos I have of them are using my 10x zoom and therefore are a tad blurry. Luckily, Oswaldo got some good pics. By the first one we also saw a yellow-crested night heron.