Española Island

We made the crossing from Floreana overnight, and by dawn today we were anchored off Española (Hood) Island, the southeastern most of the main islands of the Galápagos. Some of our group got up to greet the dawn by taking a pre-breakfast kayak trip along the coast of the island. Others waited until after breakfast to go for a snorkeling trip around Gardner Islet. The snorkelers saw less diversity of fish species than at some of our other stops, but they were treated to some spectacular red corals, octopus, and odd marine invertebrates, as well as more underwater looks at sea lions cavorting in their element.

The main destination for the morning was the gorgeous white sand beach at Gardner Bay on Española. As others have commented, it’s a miracle to find such a beautiful beach without a hotel on it! Instead, this beach was dominated by wildlife, with hundreds of sea lions lounging peacefully on the sand. With our focus on birding, we were in hot pursuit of a couple of specialty birds: the large cactus finch and the hood mockingbird. The large cactus finch, found on only four islands, was our eleventh Darwin’s finch of the trip, and after some searching we had good studies of a few individuals with their oddly enlarged bi-colored bills. We didn’t have to search for the hood mockingbirds—they found us! These brash, brazen birds greeted us almost as soon as we stepped off the pangas at Gardner Bay, and followed us up and down the beach, practically hopping across our feet. These are the largest of the mockingbird species on the Galápagos, with heavy, curved bills, probably an adaptation to life on a very dry, rocky island. Another highlight here was provided by the endemic species of lava lizard, the largest and one of the most colorful of the lava lizards on the Galápagos.

In the early afternoon, as the National Geographic Islander maneuvered to the site of our afternoon walk. Meanwhile, Paul Greenfield gave a talk on the amazing bird diversity of the nation of Ecuador, putting our Galápagos experience into perspective as an integral part of the world’s best country for birding. And then we were ready for our final landing of our final full day on the Galápagos. It seemed impossible that any experience could top the things we had already seen during an amazing week, but Punta Suarez was an awe-inspiring place that left all of us practically speechless.

Some of our group took a panga ride and a short walk at Punta Suarez while others walked a loop of nearly two miles across the point, but all of us were treated to an amazing seabird show. The blue-footed boobies, practically the emblem birds of the Galápagos, were here by the hundreds, flying over in lines and squadrons, standing by the path while we walked past at arm’s length, showing off their staring white eyes and brilliant blue feet. The stunningly patterned Nazca boobies were here in even larger numbers, at one of their main nesting colonies, with pairs courting, squabbling, incubating, and carrying on with noisy abandon while we admired them from just a few feet away. Tropicbirds swept overhead and beautiful swallow-tailed gulls circled offshore, but the ultimate seabirds here were the waved albatrosses. These huge seabirds put on an amazing show for us. With a wingspan of almost eight feet, with effortless mastery of the air, they were the epitome of grace as they circled overhead and soared along the cliffs—and they became suddenly awkward, out of their element, as soon as they landed. But they were landing here for the best of reasons, because this species of albatross nests nowhere in the world but on Española. This nesting season has not been a particularily successful one for the albatross, but we had close looks at four young birds, clownish gawky chicks covered with brown fuzz, sitting about and waiting to be fed. Even these kings and queens of the air have their awkward adolescent stage!

It was hard to leave; we lingered until almost sunset near the landing site, taking in the rugged beauty of the rocks and the sea, the abundance of sea lions and marine iguanas and bold mockingbirds, the honking and whistling of the boobies at their nests, the gulls and tropicbirds and albatrosses sweeping by in the fading light. It was a magical feeling to be in a place where nature still reigns, and it was inspiring to know that we, as travelers, were helping to protect and preserve this place for future generations to experience.