Genovesa
The National Geographic Islander crossed the Equator last night in order to reach Genovesa. This is one of the jewels of Galápagos: this small, flat island is the home to approximately one million birds! Just upon setting foot at the only beach in Darwin Bay, we could not but gasp in wonder: birds were on the ground, on the bushes and trees and in the air.
Amongst them was the great frigate bird, a species we have been looking forward to see. They are well into their breeding season, so there were many the males of this species in full courtship display: with their bright red, fully-inflated gullar pouches they sit on vegetation, spread their amazing wings open and posture and call any female frigate that flies by, several of them at the same time, making this an impressive and amusing scene. But while some males were still making their greatest efforts in attracting a mate, others were already incubating eggs, a duty shared with the female.
The surrounding mangrove trees are the perfect home to the red-footed boobies that live in this area. Genovesa has the largest colony of this species in the world, with approximately 200,000 individuals only in this island. The red-footed boobies have prehensile feet, and they build their nests on bushes or trees producing a single egg, which they look after with great care. Following a lava wall to reach a viewpoint over the entire bay, we found many swallow-tailed gulls, always in couples, and some young yellow-crowned night herons too. The land birds were also represented with the ever-curious Galápagos mockingbirds guarding their territories, some Galápagos doves engaged into their courtships and Darwin finches eating seeds on the ground.
After the hike it was time to enjoy once more the underwater world of the Galápagos. The waters of this bay tend to be rather murky, which means there is plenty of nutrients for fish like the colorful bump head parrotfish, Moorish idols, king angel fish, and Cortez rainbow wrasses. Because of the depth of the bay, larger creatures make their way in here too, like manta rays and even hammerhead sharks! Some of the latter were spotted by some of our ‘fearless’ snorkelers this morning.
In the afternoon, we set off to visit a site called Prince Phillip Steps. Close to the landing spot we found a small colony of Galápagos fur sea lions. Unlike their cousins the Galápagos sea lions, the fur sea lions have a dense coat, therefore they prefer shaded areas to avoid overheating. After climbing the irregular steps we reached the flat top of Genovesa, and the scene is superb! Once again, we are overwhelmed with the numbers of great frigates and red-footed, but this time we also found Nazca boobies in great numbers. They nest on the ground, and many of them were already incubating eggs or looking after their very young chicks. Underneath the volcanic crust there are many shallow pockets where storm petrels nest, and their main predator, the short-eared owl, is constantly patrolling this area looking for a pray, surprisingly at daytime. In the distance we could see the beautiful red-billed tropicbirds flying pretty fast to reach their nests in the vertical walls of Genovesa. The day is coming to an end, the expedition is coming to an end…and in photos and in our memory we are taking a bit of this unique corner of the world.
