Cormorants

Tuesday was an active day for the flightless cormorants on Isabela and Fernandina Islands. A pair performed their mating ritual just feet away from our Zodiacs, swimming in circles, occasionally rising out of the water. Later in the day several pairs lined the shoreline preening and drying their essentially useless wings.



Pacific green sea turtles feed in the cove we snorkeled in that day. It is always a treat to be around SO MANY of them. Of course there are also the resident penguins, sea lions, marine iguanas, fish, cormorants, and diving boobies to demand some of your attention here as well.



As I was photographing a blue-footed booby taking off from the water surface after coming up from a dive, a sea lion popped its head up, one of those serendipitous moments captured in an image.

An incredible ending (part 1)

It has been a great week here in Galapagos. The animals and geology continue to amaze me. I am constantly reminded how fortunate I am to come to know this place as I have and to visit it again and again.


Our home in Galapagos these two weeks is the National Geographic Endeavour, seen here just after sunrise.


We've visited two of my favorite spots since my last post. Fernandina Island, the youngest island in the archipelago has many marine iguanas. You must watch where you step as you walk along the dark lava, as these creatures are everywhere and blend in well with the dark stone. These are the largest of the marine iguanas; it's wild to see them piled up on each other as they are here.


Of course there are sea lions here too. This one posed in front of the ship. The island of Isabela is in the background.



Later in the week, we saw several marine iguanas feeding underwater. It is a feat to find these guys when you're snorkeling and they often don't hang around when you swim up to them. Fortunately this one did...



The absolute highlight of the week happened Friday afternoon, on our last hike of the week. While on Santiago island, not long before dusk, someone in our group saw an octopus that had washed up onto the rocks with the waves. The octopus grabbed onto a nearby sally lightfoot crab and then began to pull it back to the water. It was amazing to watch. I have a sequence of the event and a naturalist here also caught it on video. You never know what you will witness here! I'll leave you with a photo of this and Thursday's sunset.

Galapagos in March

It always amazes me how different things can be here in the Galapagos. We travel the same trails on the same islands, often viewing the same individual animals when I visit here, and yet there is always something new, something unique to experience. Of course animal behavior is a large part of the variable. This time, the recent heavy rains have brought forth a vibrant palette of green on each island. I’ve seen the vegetation with leaves before but nothing like this…even the cacti are in bloom. It hasn’t rained (yet) this week, so I am hoping that the plants hold on through next week!

Land iguanas were plentiful on North Seymour Island. Their yellow coloring really stands out against the green landscape. During previous visits, they were actually hard to find, if you can believe that.


A baby Nazca booby exhibiting playful behavior with its mother on Española Island.


Snorkeling is always one of my favorite things to do on these trips. The water is much warmer this time of year (mid-80’s) which is nice for us, but the sea lions are less active in the warmer waters. We were still able to play with a few this morning in the waters around Champion Islet.



An American oystercatcher running on a beach on Floreana Island.


The flamingos were out in force in the lagoon on Floreana Island today. I have not seen so many there in my ~10 visits there. We were also fortunate to see five flamingos in flight. They circled the lagoon four times before landing and were kind enough to do so in the beautiful end-of-the-day light.