CACTUS FINCH
One of the nine species of Darwin finches evolved to fill different feeding niches on the Galapagos and identified by their distinctive beaks
"from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved"
Charles Darwin
Cerro Diablo beach, two barren cinder cones connected by a green isthmus bordered by golden sand beaches.
The Galapagos islands lie in the Pacific ocean 1000km to the west of Ecuador. The 7882 square km land mass spread over 50,000 square km of ocean is a volcanic hotspot whose earliest islands were formed 4 - 5 million years ago although other earlier islands are thought to have subsided beneath the sea. They were discovered by accident in 1535 when Tomas de Berlanga, Bishop of Panama, drifted of course while sailing from Panama to Peru. It was later used as a base by pirates, sealers and whalers for food, water and firewood and the giant tortoises from whom the name comes were captured in their hundreds to be stored on board alive for up to a year.
"Nothing would be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava thrown into the most rugged waves and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sunburnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life"
Darwin's first impressions were less than favourable but he soon became engrossed by the variety and complexity of life to be found on these inhospitable islands. Our week long trip visited a number of them both large and small, all different and many revealing how introduced species and depradations by farming, fishing etc had often resulted in a devastating effect on wildlife. The first island visited was Isla Seymour, an uplifted lava island which was a breeding ground for magnificent and greater frigate birds and the blue footed booby (so called by sailors because their nests were so easy to rob)
MALE FRIGATE BIRD DISPLAYING DURING BREEDING
FEMALE GREAT FRIGATE BIRD
JUVENILE FRIGATE BIRD
Swallow tailed gull, sea lions, marine iguanas, lava lizards, lava herons and American cuckoos also breed here and are very easily seen
MALE SEA LION OR BEACHMASTER
SEA LION PUP
MARINE IGUANA
GREAT BLUE HERON
LAVA HERON
On Isla Bartoleme we hiked the 340 steps to the summit of the volcanic cone passing spatter cones and solidified streams of different coloured lava. Submerged craters were visible beneath the water, hardy cactus grow on the barren slopes, red spatter cones called hornites (little ovens) and lava tubes festoon the hillside.
The boat held 16 passengers in small but adequate cabins. The food was good and most sailing was done at night although the sea became quite rough later in the week
Landings by zodiac were either wet (slide over the side and wade ashore) or dry (balance and jump) by the end, I had become quite adept at getting ashore.
There are 58 resident birds in the Galapagos, 28 of whom are endemic and another 6 are frequent migrants.
The Galapagos penguin is the world’s only tropical (and therefore the most Northerly) penguin. It resembles the Humbolt penguin and owes it’s presence in the Galapagos to the Humbolt current which brings cold water to the islands.
The Waved Albatross is the only albatross which nests in the tropics. Apart from a few pairs on Isla de la Plata, the entire world population of 12000 pairs nests on Espanola.
The waves from which it takes its name can be seen on
the neck of this adult bird
YOUNG WAVED ALBATROSS
There are two species of frigatebird in the galapagos, the magnificent and the great frigatebirds. The magnificent is 107cm long, 5cm longer than the great. The males are difficult to differentiate but the magnificent has a purplish sheen and the great a greenish sheen on the back. The magnificent female has white underparts, a black throat and a blue eye ring. The great female has white underparts and throat and a red eye ring. Immature birds have white underparts and a white head.
Waved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata
Audubon's Shearwater Puffinus lherminieriThere are three species of boobys in the Galapagos, the Red-footed, the Blue-footed Booby and the Nazca Booby. The latter was previously thought to be a variant of the masked Booby but is now recognized as a separate species which inhabits the Eastern Pacific Ocean including the Galapagos.
List of birds seen in the Galapagos.
Click on the link to Wikipedia below for further information on each species.
Galapagos Penguin Spheniscus mendiculusWaved Albatross Phoebastria irrorata
Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma tethys
Red-billed Tropicbird Phaethon aethereusNazca Booby Sula granti
Magnificent Frigatebird Fregata magnificens
Great Frigatebird Fregata minor
Snowy Egret Egretta thulaCattle Egret Bubulcus ibis
Lava Heron Butorides sundevalli
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Nyctanassa violacea
Caribbean Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruberWhite-cheeked Pintail Anas bahamensis galapogensis
Galapagos Hawk Buteo galapagoensisAmerican Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus
Black-necked Stilt Himantopus mexicanusSemipalmated Plover Charadrius semipalmatus
Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus
Wandering Tattler Heteroscelus incanusSanderling Calidris alba
Least Sandpiper Calidris minutillaLava Gull Larus fuliginosus
Swallow-tailed Gull Creagrus furcatus
Galapagos Dove Zenaida galapagoensisDark-billed Cuckoo Coccyzus melacoryphus
Galapagos Mockingbird Nesomimus parvulusHood Mockingbird Nesomimus macdonaldi
San Cristobal Mockingbird Nesomimus melanotisYellow Warbler Dendroica petechia
Ruddy Turnstone Arenaria interpres
Small Ground Finch Geospiza fuliginosaCommon Cactus Finch Geospiza scandens
Large Cactus Finch Geospiza conirostrisVegetarian Finch Camarhynchus crassirostris
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