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.

Underwater Wonders

Spending time in the water is one of the my favorite activities every trip here, as you can see from my last post. Today we snorkeled amongst playful sea lions and diving boobies. Here are some of the images from our snorkel at Champion Island.


School of creole fish...the one with the white stripe is a king angel fish.


One of the many friendly sea lions.



After several attempts, I finally was able to get one of these guys (a blue footed booby) underwater. Not completely in focus, but it all happens so quickly, I'm pleased to have it, complete with a fish in the booby's mouth. They hit the water at over 100 mph and are only down there for a quick moment before returning to the surface and flying away.

Penguins!

Swimming with penguins is always one of the highlights of traveling down here. We had a fantastic opportunity to snorkel with them on the first week of my trip. Usually they will approach you very briefly and be off again. This time however, we had two that stayed with us for about half an hour. The photo staff and two guests stayed in the water for three hours that day, photographing the birds. As you can see in the last photo, taken of me by a guest, they were coming very close to us. It will definitely be a day in the water I'll not forget!

Fernandina and Santa Cruz

It’s been another great trip to the Galapagos Islands, and as with the ones in the past, it is going by all too quickly. One would think that having visited this place three years in a row at the exact same time, it would all start to look the same. While it is a challenge to photograph a little differently now that I have walked these trails numerous times, the animals, tides and seasons continue to remind me that our world is not one that follows a rulebook. This year the islands are more lush than in previous years. There are yellow and white flowers dotting the landscape. And thankfully the water is warmer than it has been in the past – a very comfortable 78 degrees. Since May is the transition period between the warm wet season and the cool dry season, we never know what side of the change we will be here for. This year the changes are taking place as we are here, so the air is cooler and the water warmer, making the experience much more pleasant on some of the more arid islands.

We started the day on Tuesday watching the sunrise over Fernandina Island and the most recent eruption in the area. It’s been a few weeks since the eruption occurred so we could not see any red glow but the black lava was still smoking.

Later in the day, on the opposite side of the island a sea lion was feasting on Sally lightfoot crabs in a tide pool. This was a young sea lion who must have not known that this behavior is very atypical for his species. It was quite a spectacle to watch as he went after numerous crabs and toss them into the air as he devoured them.




Yesterday was our day on land. We visited Santa Cruz Island and the town of Puerto Ayora. This is where the Charles Darwin Research Station is located. Fortunately we’re able to travel to the highlands to see the giant tortoises in the wild as well. Three of us were able to spend some time with one large male away from the group that was eating passionfruit. A friend’s camera lens was at one point covered in the fruit juice from the splatter as the tortoise bit into the firmer fruits.



There’s a lot of chaos here, with birds chattering and the oohs and ahhs of people seeing these places for the first time. My favorite images are those that are able to find the still quiet moments in all the activity, so I’ll leave you with a few of those…..

Washington DC

I have been very fortunate to become a part of a new program through National Geographic Expeditions. These three day photo workshops are held in various cities in the US (this year being Washington DC and San Francisco). Since the majority of my travels have been outside the country, this is a great opportunity for me to see more of my homeland. Last week was the first of these programs, in DC.

(Click on the images to see them bigger.)


The tulips were in bloom all over the city - beautiful.





While I was at the Washington Monument, the sound of helicopters filled the air. Navy One coming to take Obama to Mexico City. It was interesting to watch the three helicopters do their shell game dance as they approached the White House and then one land as the other two circled the city. I grew impatient waiting for Obama to come out and fly away so missed his departure.




The Lincoln Memorial



Vietnam Memorial


The Treasury



Waiting for the train....



And finally the very impressive Natural Science museum. I could have spent days in there. That's a right whale in the top image and the jaw of a megalodon in the bottom.