Genovesa Island
At around 5:30 am, we were reaching the open inner caldera of Genovesa Island, a tiny but amazingly rich island located north of the equator line.
As we dropped anchor, hundreds of birds were flying above us, and the sound in the air was like a concert of different bird calls.
This small island holds the densest concentration of birds in Galápagos, from red footed boobies to storm petrels, Nazca boobies, swallowed tailed gulls and frigate birds, and yellow crown night herons.
In our first landing at Darwin Bay, every guest was surprised by the close presence of many baby frigate birds resting on their tiny nests waiting for their parents to come and feed them. At the same time and almost sharing the same bushes, we had red footed boobies and swallowed tailed gulls, incubating eggs or taking care of their chicks or young’s.
Taking good pictures here is quite easy, as animals are so close and tame, that in a relatively short period of time, you ended up with hundreds of pictures with different angles and settings. A dream for every photographer, even an amateur!
Before lunch, and after the last snorkel outing of the day, a very good one where we had the chance to see large schools of mobulas, our expedition leader Paula gave all departure details and our photo instructor Walter began to create a unique movie file with our guest’s best pictures taken along the week.
The afternoon was full of activities, with a kayak regatta between guests and staff, and the last outing to Prince Phillip’s steps, where again; hundreds of frigate birds, Nazca boobies and red footed boobies were waiting for us as well as the always inquisitive and silent short eared owls, displaying their unique behavior of hunting storm petrels at daytime.
