birds of the Galapagos

I suppose I was more attracted by the birds of the Galapagos than the reptiles, much as I loved the iguanas.  & it was the albatrosses that made me travel there during August, when the sea was cold and choppy, because the entire world population of this species breeds during the northern hemisphere summer on Española Island.  This is the most southerly island of the archipelago, far from the main group, so it also led me to do a two week trip rather than the usual one week.

All well worth it, as not only were the albatrosses amazing, but the whole two weeks was amazing. The photo above, of these goose-sized birds, shows a movement from a 'dance' between a pair that can go on (apparently) for two hours.  They dance like this when courting, and work to perfect their moves, and then use it to reinforce their bond each year when they meet up again to breed.

Another favourite was the frigatebird, above displaying with his throat pouch all extended, but here to the right with the pouch shrivelled back up, paying the inevitable consequences of such an impressive display to the females:

I see these birds every day from my apartment in Panama, but only in flight, and never with any hint of the impressive red pouch.  They are truly prehistoric-looking birds in flight, although I'll resist the temptation to put in another photo of one as I want to show some of the other birds too.

Alongside the frigatebirds, sharing the same nesting ground, were the boobies.  Two species, Nazca boobies and red-footed boobies.  Sadly the blue-footed ones have decamped to an island where the tourists do not have permission to go, and although we still saw a few of them, we weren't able to wander amongst a breeding colony.  I was lucky to see one pair doing their 'foot-waving' dance, whilst everyone else on the boat was snorkeling in the cold water, but too far away to allow me to get a photo with my little makeshift camera.

With the other two species, however, we had our fill.  I particularly liked the red-footed because their feet were so amazing - webbed, yet prehensile, so they had no problem perching on small tree branches - or on one occasion, in the rigging of our boat.

One unexpected Galapagos bird (for me anyway) was the short-eared owl.  We saw several of them on different islands, but on Genovesa Island, at a colony of storm petrels that nest in tunnels in the lava, the owls have learnt to hang around waiting to catch a petrel unawares as it leaves its tunnel.  Apparently they are also known to hide in the entrance of the tunnels, waiting to grab a petrel as it flies in.  We didn't see them actually catch anything, but we did see them hanging around the nesting colony, well-camouflaged in rock crevices.  I prefer this picture of one on Isabela Island however as you can just about see the short 'ears' which are not that often visible.

There were also storm petrels, and hawks, and more common birds such as a few heron species, oystercatchers and flamingoes - all rather easier to approach and photograph than is the case elsewhere.  But I can't finish this without referring to the famous Darwin's finches.  We didn't manage to see all 14 (I think it is) species, nor did we see the sharp-beaked ground finch doing its vampire feeding - where it pecks at the base of feathers of boobies and feeds on the blood.  Although I did sit for a while on a rock on Española Island with a couple of Hood mockingbirds pecking very hard at my toes - trying to draw blood, I am sure!

Some of the species were difficult to tell apart, in particular as the medium and small ground finches are know to hybridise, but I believe this is a small ground finch.

reptiles of the Galapagos

The islands are named after a saddle (the Spanish word), based upon the shape of the shell of some of the tortoises, which have evolved to be able to stretch their necks up high, to get the juicy leaves from the cactus that has evolved long trunks to keep the leaves up high out of reach of normal tortoises ... I do not have any particular interest in tortoises but they are hard to avoid in the Galapagos Islands.

Now there are only some estimated 30,000, and this following plenty of work by conservationists to breed and reintroduce them to parts where they had died out.  It is estimated that when Darwin visited the islands there were 250,000 there.  But people came and hunted them, with ships filling their holds with them, stacked alive and upside down, as they would stay alive like that for up to a year, providing a store of fresh meat for the sailors.  Away from such a cruel end they are long-lived - one taken by Darwin in 1835 only died (in Queensland zoo) in 2003.  They are also quite fascinating - did you know that as youngsters it is not possible to determine their sex, but that when they mature, in males the undershell changes to a concave shape (to enable them to mount a female), the tail grows longer and the penis migrates from its internal position to the end of the tail?

But I much preferred the iguanas, both the land and the marine varieties.  The land ones mostly seem to have a kind of smile on their face (although this one looks quite grumpy) and are very pretty, in varying patterns of cream, yellow and black.

The marine iguanas were more ferocious looking, although mostly just laying around in big heaps trying to keep warm (this being the cold season in the Galapagos as the Humboldt current brings cold water up from the southern oceans).  They are black in colour, however those from Española (Hood) Island are much more colourful, particularly during the breeding season, and some appeared to have come into season early.  This made them more aggressive towards other males too, so quite entertaining to watch!

I was very keen to see a snake or two as well (I'm sure you've all seen the BBC footage of the snakes hunting the young iguana!), although not hopeful as they are not seen all that often.  But we were lucky and saw three snakes, one long black Fernandina snake and two stripey Galapagos racers.  The first snake we saw was out in the open, seemingly basking in the late afternoon sun.  We discussed whether or not it was actually alive, this being highly unusual behaviour, when a mockingbird came along to cause trouble.  It pecked at the tail end of the snake, lifting that end up, and the snake - clearly very much alive - reared up at it.  They are very mildly venomous, apparently, but kill their prey through constriction.  A battle ensued, with the bird continually pecking at the snake, seemingly trying to drag it even further into the open, whilst the snake tried to fend off the bird whilst moving towards cover.  We moved on once the snake had safely made it to the cover of a bush, although the mockingbird was still hanging around.  Wish I'd thought to video it, as my replacement camera did not take good enough photos, but these three blurry, washed out pictures give some idea of what the interaction looked like: