Paint-Billed Crake
The thought crossed my mind recently that visiting the Galapagos was a trip of a lifetime – but I did not expect it would take me another lifetime to get through all the pictures.
The Paint-Billed Crake above and below has got to be the most cooperative crake I have ever tried to photograph, let alone see.
These pictures are in no particular order. In fact I think they’re nearly in the order I uploaded them. They are all from Floreana Island and environs.
Always looking for a cooperative Blue-Footed Booby, but sometimes they move too fast.
Blue-Footed Booby
The Nazca Boobies, on the other hand, are always available for pictures.
Below, a Brown Noddy on the left, and on the right and below, the ubiquitous Elliott’s Storm-Petrel. I got spoiled seeing these birds off the bough of the boat every day. Guess I’ll need to take more pelagic trips if I want more of this sort of thing.
Floreana Island has its own subspecies of Galapagos Mockingbird.
I think we saw at least one Galapagos Flycatcher every day.
Galapagos Flycatcher
This island also has a budding tortoise population.
The hard-to-capture bird below is a Galapagos Shearwater. They were rarely seen except for one early evening when a group of them was following the boat, walking on water.
Adding another Darwin’s Finch to the list, below is the Medium Tree Finch, I believe a male on the left and a female on the right.
And below, two individuals from the Small Ground Finch clan. We may have seen them every day too.
The Red-Billed Tropicbird below was my ongoing challenge. Although we saw plenty of them they were either too far away or too fast to capture perfectly. But I kept trying.
I will never tire of Sally Lightfoot Crabs. Who is Sally Lightfoot? Apparently no one in particular, but one website says they get their name from being nimble on their feet. That’s a Marine Iguana with and below the crab.
The Galapagos Sea Lions we saw nearly every day, too. No complaints.
Below, a juvenile Swallow-Tailed Gull and two flight shots. You can actually see the swallow-tail in the top right flight picture. Click on it for enlargement.
Below, a Wedge-Rumped Storm-Petrel and me, likely trying to get pictures of it.
Those Galapagos Yellow Warblers always seemed happy to see us.
I hope you are enjoying the holiday season, wherever you are. We are currently toughening up to withstand the Polar Vortex which shows no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. Snow is predicted this weekend. That’s Snow with a Capital S.
Small Tree Finch
I’m doing well after my second cataract surgery and looking forward to a new prescription in a few weeks.
I’m not happy with working late, Friday night. End of Complaining. Hope to be back to this page soon.
We went back to the catamaran for an early lunch, then went snorkeling before exploring the lava rocks on the other side of the island. I tried out my underwater camera gear for the first time. I was not able to capture anything very well, but the dive was great fun. We never stayed in for very long, but I always felt like I could stay down forever.
A closer look at the Sally Lightfoot Crab and a Lava Lizard on the right. You’ll have to click on the pictures to see them better.
Magnificent Frigatebirds also call this island home.
Not to be confused with the ever-present Galapagos Sea Lion.
The predominant species of crab is the Sally Lightfoot Crab which delights me by its name almost as much as its appearance. The photograph on the right has a Galapagos Striated Heron in it, an endemic also referred to as the “Lava Heron.”
We got on and off the catamaran using a vessel I’m pretty sure was referred to as a “panga” and was designed with seating on the sides so you could throw your gear in the middle of the boat. I seem to have only this picture of the boat from a few days later, but I think the islet pictures must have been taken from it. Below the picture of the panga is a Whimbrel on the shore of an islet.
One more look at an oystercatcher…
I’ll be back with so very much more, this trip was amazing. Although I can’t imagine going back and doing it all over again, in a way I wish I could. I guess that’s the reason for taking pictures. This time I’m really reliving an entire experience, not “just” the birds.