This was the last full day of our Galapagos expedition. We awoke as the ship entered the inside of a sunken caldera. Birds were flying all around the ship. Genovesa Island is a bird paradise; here our guests enjoyed one the most touching moments of the week, an intimate encounter with sea birds. Along the trails, either at Darwin Bay or at Prince Phillip’s Steps, we were walking by male frigatebirds with their gular sacks inflated, and a sense of desperation in their eyes. It is not easy to get a female, and the bigger the gular sack the more chances they have to get one. Competition is fierce as the mating season goes on and many of the females pair off. Soon we had made our way into the nesting grounds of the red-footed boobies. These are such beautiful birds with an incredible contrast of colors—their soft brown feathers, their blue beaks, the pink mask around their beak and, of course, their webbed red feet. Unlike the other varieties of booby, the red-footed boobies mostly nest in trees or bushes instead of on the ground, and we could see them perched all throughout the palo santo trees, oiling their feathers. There is much more to see here, Darwin finches, Galapagos mockingbirds, Nazca boobies, petrels and the short-eared owl.
9/2/2024
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National Geographic Endeavour II
Floreana Island
Floreana was the first island colonized by people in the Galapagos. Ecuador took possession of the Galapagos Islands in 1832 and established a penal colony on Floreana. When Darwin visited the Galapagos in 1835, the second island he landed on was Floreana. During his stay, he met with some of the convicts and explored the highlands. Floreana Island has been shaped by volcanic activity and ecological evolution. When we arrived at Point Cormorant, we were greeted by the striking, green-tinted sand on the beach. The sand is colored by olivine crystals, a remnant of the island’s volcanic origins. A short trail led us to a contrasting white sand beach on the opposite side of the point. Along the way, we passed by a brackish lagoon that is home to a small but significant population of flamingos. As we hiked in the forest, we found Darwin’s finches, Galapagos flycatchers, and a dark-billed cuckoo. We explored a nearby rocky islet to find the Floreana mockingbird, which we added to our Galapagos bird list.