Located in the northeastern part of the Galapagos, Genovesa is the island we explored today. We arrived very early in the morning at Darwin Bay and anchored in its caldera. This is also the home for the largest colony of red-footed boobies as well as one of the largest for the Nazca booby.
After breakfast we landed on a coralline beach and began our walk from there and encountered the very rare lava gull feasting upon a stranded diamond stingray, while yellow-crown night herons were looking for Sally Lightfoot crabs and fish in a nearby tidal pool. Along the coast we also watched sharp beaked ground finches look for small seeds on the ground. This is the dry cold season and it is difficult for land birds to find food but it is also the time when sea birds find more fish and we observed a lot of activity around the coast as great frigatebirds, swallow-tailed gulls, and red-footed boobies were trying to feed their young.
After a great morning walk we went snorkeling along the cliffs of Darwin Bay and some of our guests were surprised by the presence of a scalloped hammerhead shark as well as a great variety of fish.
This afternoon we went to a different place in the bay for our second and final walk of the day. At Prince Phillip’s Steps, we observed the main colony of Nazca boobies and several were incubating eggs. We even found a couple of nests with newly hatched boobies.
Toward the end of the walk, we also found a rather relaxed short-eared owl perched on a bush watching its favorite prey fly by and, in turn, watched us as we were amazed by its unique beauty.
The afternoon ended with us returning to the ship, where we had a great time looking at the pictures taken during this amazing week in the Galapagos.
