Fernandina and Isabella Islands


Monday, February 18, 2019

Fernandina and Isabela Islands

Another phenomenal day.  We disembarked at 7:45 AM after breakfast for Punta Espinoza on Fernandina island in the far west of the archipelago.  Fernandina is volcanic, and very active, with the most recent eruption being last year!  We had a 1.5 mile hike on the island.  There are lots of blue-footed boobies here, so one photo for today:


It’s amazing to watch them dive for fish.  We also saw a striated heron:


Most of the island is lava, and there is a large population of marine iguanas.  Sometimes they snuggle together to conserve heat:


We came to the only beach with fine rocks and sand, and this is the only area on the island where females can dig the deep holes in which they lay their eggs.  Thus, the beach was crowded with busy female marine iguanas digging holes in which to lay their eggs.  I have great video clips, but don’t have the bandwith to upload them from the boat.


We then had a truly remarkable experience.  We were in front of one iguana when she laid her two eggs:


The naturalist explained that this was a pretty stupid female, as the eggs are supposed to go deep in the hole to keep them from predators.  We were trying to coach her to at least cover them up when a frigate bird swooped down and stole one of the eggs.  We all shouted in dismay.  Another man in our group who had been photographing something else, spun around and snapped this shot as another frigate bird took the remaining egg:


From the left, that’s our naturalist, Laura and Joyce.  We all decided this is evolution in action.  Stupid iguanas don’t get to reproduce. 

On the way back to the Zodiac we spotted this Galapagos hawk high in a tree:


We then returned to the boat, changed for snorkeling, and had an amazing hour snorkeling with sea turtles who live along this shore.  Back to the boat again for lunch, and while we were eating, the ship crossed the Bolivar Channel to Isabela Island where we had a Zodiac tour of the base of the cliffs.  Here we saw a flock of Galapagos shearwaters:

There’s another booby called the Nazca Booby:


We rode deep into a saltwater cave (you can see our ship on the left):


We saw a number of flightless cormorants who not only can’t fly, they have a very limited amount of oil for the wings, so that they need to dry them to remain efficient swimmers:


Our views of sea turtles were not as good as when snorkeling but still were excellent:



And we came on a colony of animals called “Galapagos Fur Seals” which are not seals at all, but really are sea lions.  The fur is so fine that they have been misnamed:


Once again we were all so exhausted that we skipped the second part of David Attenborough’s Galapagos film and went to bed.  Up early tomorrow again!!

Comments

  1. Ralph P. LockeFebruary 20, 2019 at 4:09 AM

    Astounding! Thanks for the "narration" to accompany various of the photos. The egg theft must have been quite a sight!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rwa442February 20, 2019 at 4:55 AM

    The egg snatching was remarkable! All the photos were interesting, quite an interesting place.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LizFebruary 20, 2019 at 5:53 AM

    Wow!! This trip sounds truly amazing! The egg snatching reminds me of the time my folks and Sarah (then maybe 6-7 yrs old) went with naturalists to see sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach in Boca. You have to go at night and they send guys out on 4-wheel drive vehicles to try to find them. They DID find one (that doesn’t always happen) and the guide explained that they are in a kind of hypnotic trance state while laying the eggs so they don’t get spooked by people. After laying the eggs the mother uses her back feet to cover them with sand. The guide invited the kids to “help” her. As you can imagine, Sarah dove right in and helped to put sand on the eggs. It was amazing — if not quite as exotic as the Galapagos 😊. Natural selection is at work here too. The babies all hatch at the same time - the mother lays hundreds of eggs. They then all race to the ocean. Less than10% make it before being eaten by predators. It was such a memorable evening. I add my thanks to that of the others. As I have said many times — I feel as though I get to see the world through your eyes and it’s wonderful (next best thing to you adopting me ;- ) !!! Continue to enjoy!

    ReplyDelete

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