Genovesa - Beach Walk

Friday, 31 August 2018
Galapagos Day 7

We ended our time in the Galapagos with a spectacular walk along the beach and mangroves in Darwin Bay. The birds were astounding, and the sea lions were having great fun. Please excuse the length of this post, there was just too much going on.

The shrubs along the beach were overflowing with nesting birds, mostly boobies and frigatebirds.

It wasn't all large birds. Here's a cactus ground finch.

And a yellow warbler.

This trail is known for being underwater at high tide. The morning group had a dry walk.

Because the trail was underwater, the sea lions swam among us. This young sea lion was playing with a twig and swimming into the mangroves.

Then a second sea lion pup came by and the two had a great time chasing each other, leaping into the air, and just generally enjoying playtime.

The adults preferred to sleep on the beach.

We saw two species of gulls.

Lava gulls are named for their uniformly dark color that matches the dark basaltic rocks.

Swallow-tailed gulls are common throughout the Galapagos.

A juvenile swallow-tailed gull.

And soon there will be even more young swallow-tailed gulls.

Tropicbirds with their absurdly long tails were flying overhead.

Two red-billed tropicbirds.

Another view of a red-billed tropicbird.

Tragedy. A juvenile tropicbird has somehow ended up in the water. At this stage, the bird lacks waterproof feathers and will most likely not be able to survive.

Frigatebirds and boobies nested together. Nazca boobies, blue-footed boobies, and frigatebirds nest on the ground, while red-footed boobies nest in trees, especially the mangroves at this site.

Adult frigatebird.

Juvenile frigatebirds.

Adult Nazca booby.

It looked as if the mangroves were filled with white fluff of some sort every few feet, but occasionally a black beak would make it clear that the fluffs were juvenile red-footed boobies.

As they get older, they replace the white downy feathers with darker adult feathers.

Getting ready to fly. A red-footed booby exercises its wings.

Of course, there are plenty of adult red-footed boobies nearby.

All too soon the sun was setting and we had to return to the ship and conclude a great trip.

I couldn't resist adding one last sunrise view of Daphne Major from the ship, docked at Baltra. This is the classic view, with the trail from the landing site to the crater rim visible.