Genovesa Island
Today we were welcomed to Genovesa Island by the many different species of marine birds that inhabit this wonderful haven of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As the ship arrived at the island we cruised all the way inside a collapsed caldera. After breakfast, photo groups disembarked to visit Prince Philip’s Steps.
Genovesa is one of the must-visit islands for birds and as you arrive here it almost seems as if you were watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The natural history groups disembarked at the small white sandy beach at Darwin Bay and we began to see many swallow-tailed gulls, some with small chicks. It was a picturesque scene; the young chicks insisting to be fed while their parents were moving around trying to avoid the hungry chicks that continued following them. This island has a unique characteristic: there are no land reptiles here, and that fact has shaped the interaction of plants and animals. Prickly pear cacti on this island have soft spines, which is a striking difference compared to the rest of the cacti on different islands, where cacti have stiff spines but there they also have land reptiles that prey on the cacti.
As we approached a red mangrove tree we started to hear different sounds coming from the tree. As we got closer we could see what was making all those sounds: this tree was the nesting place for a few red-footed boobies. We could observe all stages of development, from small chicks with their fuzzy down cover to some older juveniles that had replaced some of the down for real feathers. Some had a weird look, still some down cover and feathers here and there. Suddenly an adult arrived and after some exchange of sounds and different movements with the chick it opened its bill and the chick was finally fed.
The whole area was also covered with some rusty-colored birds: great frigatebird juveniles sitting on their nests, also waiting for their parents to arrive and feed them. Last but not least we had a few yellow-crowned night herons; as in the case of the frigates, all the ages were represented, from young juveniles to adults in full color.
Snorkeling was amazing because we saw hammerhead sharks, a huge school of golden cow-nose rays in a choreographed dance, and diamond sting rays. We also saw a rich variety of tropical fish such as Moorish idols, sunset wrasses, lots of parrot fish, yellow-tailed surgeon fish and plenty of other species.
The afternoon proved to be even more interesting. After we disembarked at the site known as Prince Phillip’s Steps we walked through a Nazca booby colony; again we could see all the different stages these young chicks have to go through. The weather was nice; the sun came out but a light breeze helped everyone do the whole walk in comfortable conditions. The whole trail goes through a Palo Santo tree forest, and along the way we could see red-footed boobies nesting in it.
After arriving at the other side of the island, an impressive sight was in front of us: thousands of storm petrels flying in different directions along the cliffs. Then we started the search for the elusive short-eared owl, and finally spotted it, sitting on the lava rocks while its potential prey flew all around it.
All this barren lava landscape has the presence of different species of seabirds that turn this island into an oasis for life.
