The southernmost island of the Galápagos Archipelago is Española. It is over 4 millions years old, and over time this former shield volcano has developed a rather flattened outline. Gardner Bay is in the sheltered, leeward northern side of the island, and on its white, coralline sandy beach lie restful Galápagos sea lions. This long beach is the perfect battlefield for feisty Española mockingbirds, and other land birds like Galápagos doves and Darwin finches abound here. Española’s southern coastline is constantly battered by the southeastern trade winds, therefore tall cliffs rises above the ocean. This is the side preferred by the endemic waved albatrosses, the only tropical albatross species in the world.