Today we explored the northeastern realm and the island of Genovesa is where we spent our day. This island has the largest concentration of seabirds in the archipelago and also the warmest waters. We dropped anchor inside the caldera of this extinct volcano and saw steep cliffs surrounding us with the dry forest of Palo Santo trees on top of them.
After breakfast we were eager to go ashore. We had two places to see, one was Darwin Bay and the other was Prince Phillip Steps. Both places were stunning and full of wildlife. Amongst the birds that we observed today there were lots of red-footed boobies, great frigate birds, Nazca boobies, and swallow-tailed gulls. We also searched for the top predator on the island, the short-eared owl, and we were all lucky to find some - these are hard to see especially as they blend very well against the lava flows.
In the group of small land birds we were able to find Galapagos doves, Galapagos mockingbirds, and Darwin finches. One couple of female sharp-beaked ground finches (also known as the vampire finch) engaged in a fierce fight that left us surprised by how aggressive they were.
This morning we also went snorkeling in the warm waters of Genovesa Island; there we saw different species of fish and marine invertebrates. Some of our guests went kayaking and observed the large number of red-billed tropic birds in a courtship display, flying all over the caldera.
We ended our day with a magnificent sunset.
