What a great day for "finching"! We were at Rosemary's island, Tower Island, walking together with Jonathan Weiner, the author of "The Beak of the Finch." As we walked among hundreds of birds we learned about Jonathan's work and his experiences with Peter and Rosemary Grant.
Tower was the second most closely watched island in the Grants' study. The work on this island is mostly Rosemary's, while the work on Daphne is mostly Peter's. They are a scientist couple who have spent more than two decades studying evolution. They are, in Weiner's words: "doing what Darwin could not do, going back to the Galapagos year after year; and seeing there what Darwin did not imagine could be seen at all."
They see that evolution happens all the time. They have focused their research on Darwin's finches. Today we saw a few of them, like the large beaked ground finch shown in the picture.
In the Galapagos Islands and walking together with our special guest, Jonathan Weiner, we really felt like little Darwins today.
