Genovesa Island
Another sunny day! Wow! We have had wonderful sunny weather these last three days, and for late August in Galápagos, this is special. We are in the midst of the garua season, and indeed at the beginning of the week we also experienced garua: a wet, cool mist that blows in from the southeast and blankets the islands and the ocean at this time of the year. Because of the pleasant, cool conditions on land, and the fact that the cold up-welling ocean waters are especially rich in marine life during this season, this is the breeding period for many of the sea birds.
Genovesa, as it is a peripheral island and hence provides easy assess to the open ocean which is the feeding grounds for many Galápagos species, is the home to over a million sea birds. On this morning’s lovely walk we were delighted to have the opportunity to watch red-footed boobies, frigatebirds and swallow-tailed gulls tending their chicks. One pair of swallowtails with a largish chick, already several weeks of age, were quietly feeding him. The trick these birds use to avoid having to share their catch with marauding frigates, is to wait awhile, after returning to the nest, before they feed their young.
I was fortunate to recognize the swallowing and gulping action that signals imminent regurgitation and was able to photograph the hungry chick finally getting his breakfast at about 11:00 a.m. But their patience paid off: no frigatebirds approached the feeding pair to steal away the prize, which appears to have been squid!
We snorkelled and then indulged in a delicious traditional Ecuadorian buffet lunch. On the afternoon’s hike up Prince Phillip’s Steps, the highlights were a male frigate bird with his red gular pouch inflated and a short eared owl just beside the trail, which was feeding on a storm petrel, and spit out a pellet of bones and feathers from a previous meal, as we watched in amazement.
Another sunny day! Wow! We have had wonderful sunny weather these last three days, and for late August in Galápagos, this is special. We are in the midst of the garua season, and indeed at the beginning of the week we also experienced garua: a wet, cool mist that blows in from the southeast and blankets the islands and the ocean at this time of the year. Because of the pleasant, cool conditions on land, and the fact that the cold up-welling ocean waters are especially rich in marine life during this season, this is the breeding period for many of the sea birds.
Genovesa, as it is a peripheral island and hence provides easy assess to the open ocean which is the feeding grounds for many Galápagos species, is the home to over a million sea birds. On this morning’s lovely walk we were delighted to have the opportunity to watch red-footed boobies, frigatebirds and swallow-tailed gulls tending their chicks. One pair of swallowtails with a largish chick, already several weeks of age, were quietly feeding him. The trick these birds use to avoid having to share their catch with marauding frigates, is to wait awhile, after returning to the nest, before they feed their young.
I was fortunate to recognize the swallowing and gulping action that signals imminent regurgitation and was able to photograph the hungry chick finally getting his breakfast at about 11:00 a.m. But their patience paid off: no frigatebirds approached the feeding pair to steal away the prize, which appears to have been squid!
We snorkelled and then indulged in a delicious traditional Ecuadorian buffet lunch. On the afternoon’s hike up Prince Phillip’s Steps, the highlights were a male frigate bird with his red gular pouch inflated and a short eared owl just beside the trail, which was feeding on a storm petrel, and spit out a pellet of bones and feathers from a previous meal, as we watched in amazement.
