For those of us who flew to Ecuador the day before, morning came very early. We headed back to the airport, to catch our flight to the Galápagos Islands. The airport at Baltra was busy, with guides exchanging tour groups leaving for tour groups coming. (I didn't get a full sense of this until our own departure, and having gotten to know the guides a bit. Craziness.) We had to clear customs and be sure we weren't transporting anything dangerous to the islands. (Nothing that could germinate and grow, nothing that might propagate or reproduce and overrun native island species -- all very understandable.) But eventually we were all gathered, and off to the buses, which would take us to the docks. At the dock were the Zodiacs, which would take us to the ship. We got a crash course in boarding Zodiacs -- including the Zodiac handshake -- and we were off!
Our luggage had its own Zodiac. It would meet us again at our cabins.
Once all aboard, we had a mandatory orientation meeting, where we met the ship manager and ship captain, and had critical safety drills. Then, buffet lunch -- which was extraordinary and really set a tone for the rest of the week. Then, the visiting and excursions began. We would spend the first afternoon at North Seymour Islet, along its rocky southern shore.
North Seymour is home to incredible numbers of birds, including blue-footed boobies, swallow-tailed gulls, magnificent frigate birds, finches and yellow warblers, sea lions, land iguanas, and several reptiles. Of course, you never know what you might see, and we had no idea how fabulous our first excursion would actually be.
Right away, we bumped into nesting frigate birds. Right there, right next to us. And they totally ignored us.
Then, we saw sun-bathing sea lions. On the trail. Walking in front of us. Completely ignoring us.
Blue-footed boobies flew along the shore, diving for fish. They are incredibly powerful and graceful divers -- straight down like a torpedo.
And we could see Daphne Major Island. This is the place where the Grants have studied finches for more than 20 years, working to provide the bounty of evidence behind Darwin's theories of natural selection. Their work is amazing, demonstrating selection in action and variations of survival based on weather patterns, seed growth, and bill adaptability.
And then we turned a corner and stumbled upon a blue-footed booby watching a chick. The scene became something extraordinary, and we stood here for quite a while, not even capable of pondering our luck. Here, parent two arrives after fishing, almost a "Hi honey, I'm home" scenario.
So the other parent walks off. And right toward us.
And climbs onto the rock right in front of me. Really. I'm on my knees here, no zoom needed. Yes, the iguana was there the whole time. It's of no concern to the booby, as it's a vegetarian.
I love this photo. Nothing more is needed -- you know exactly what this is.
Dinner time!
I needed to get reacquainted with my camera, as it had been more than a year since I'd used this one. So I spent a lot of time especially this first day, playing with the focus and lighting. Sometimes I got it, lots of times I didn't. I like these two photos, which I think were mostly happy accidents. Above, the bird in front is in focus; while you can see the ones behind, they're blurred.
Here, the opposite. The newly arrived parent, full of fish, is in focus, while the relieved parent is blurred.
Eventually the iguana moved off -- there was a tasty patch of vegetation just a few feet away. My lighting isn't very good here, but I don't have others of them eating. I could improve it in PhotoShop or something, but that's kind of cheating....
Same booby, now it's grooming time. I just liked the perspective.
Yellow warbler. They were really pretty.
Finally we started off again, and one sea lion came out of the water, walked in front of us, and headed over to this other one. They are the same, the color is just due to wet and dry fur.
These boobies were courting. The male brought the female a stick. She liked the offering, and presented her own stick. After trading sticks for a few minutes, the male climbed on top of the female and they mated. I also caught a courtship dance on camera, but that was a fabulous example of a need to practice more with focus. You can see the posture changes, but the grass in the front is what's in focus. Ah well.
Just a funny little shot.
This booby is trying to rear two chicks. The older is the one on the right and is considerably larger than the second. Unless there is plenty of food, it's unlikely that the second chick will survive.
Lava lizards. Love them. Their coloration helps discern the males from the females.
A face only a parent could love? Frigate bird chicks are large and very downy. And they were all over in these very low-lying nests.
This is an adult male magnificent frigate bird. The gular sac is part of its courtship attempt. The bigger the sac, the redder the sac, the more attractive to a mate. Watching them fly with the sacs inflated was incredible. It was a breezy day, and those sacs are not aerodynamic.
Where to build your next if you're a warbler? In the cactus, of course.
A pair of nesting frigatebirds.
So we saw birds courting, nesting, mating, and rearing chicks. We saw iguanas and lava lizards and a racer snake. We learned about the littoral zone and various trees, like the jerusalem thorn and palo santo. And we saw sea lions. All on our first day.
Of course, we thought it was amazing and incredible and unbelievable. (Most of us ran out of superlatives by day two and just were stunned by the islands and all they are.) But I asked our guide toward the end of our hike. After all, the guides live in the islands. They see them every day, every week. They know what's "normal." But Aura said that they expected to see some things today, but not nearly what we saw. We'd had a very auspicious beginning to our week in the enchanted islands.
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