What a wonderful life! Every day I wake up and hope for the unexpected. I feel as if I have been chosen for this mission; my mission is to be here in this wonderful place, the Galapagos. There could not be a better job in this world. Being a naturalist is this marvelous place is certainly a blessing and I'm very grateful for that. Where else can you have so much fun while you are working?

We had such neat things happening today. As we were heading for the snorkeling site we had an immature frigatebird follow us. This bird was right above us, maybe three feet above our heads. It was fun seeing this bird so close. This was not the only thing though: while we were snorkeling we had a sighting of a manta ray! And as if this was not enough, we saw two manta rays from the Zodiac!

How can you not agree with me when I tell you this is a wonderful place to be in? All these things occurring in only one morning.

Now, I know you have been following our Web site and you may already know about the swallow-tailed gull, Creagrus (Larus) furcatus found in the Galapagos. One of our naturalists gave you some information about them not too long ago. I would only like to mention that these gulls are one of the very few nocturnal gulls found on earth and that they feed mainly on squids from the surface.

This photo shows an adult bird feeding its hungry chick a squid. Of-course the squid is too big for the baby. What the bird does is swallow the squid and digest it a bit more so that the baby can feed bit by bit. You may see that the squid is the same size as the chick; therefore feeding the babies may take a long time. What a wonderful life!