Isla Española
The days here in Galapagos just keep getting better. Today, aside from fantastic views, we got to see some of the birds that the Galapagos Islands are famous for.
First, we saw a rare hawk circling for prey. From a distance we saw him swoop down and catch something in his talons for lunch. Later, we found him resting and caught this photo.
We also hike near a nesting area for albatross. We saw some of the eggs still on the ground that had been left for some reason or another. These birds are huge, the photos don’t show the scale.
Finally, we saw what Bode had been waiting for; the blue-footed booby. There are 4 types of boobies, Galapagos has 3, and we got to see two of them today. The masked booby and the famous blue-footed variety.
We were told that the blue-footed booby dives deep into the water to fish. Seeing the splash, the fish scatter. But they have reformed in their school by the time the booby has turned to go up to surface and they are able to snatch the fish on their way up.
This is baby booby time of year and the parents are splitting up the egg sitting duty. We got to witness a couple changing shifts. There are also lots of fuzzy babies about. No blue feet, but they look like they are made with feather boas. We also got to see a mother feeding a baby.
That is what’s so special about this place. The animals seem to look at you as a curiosity, but aren’t frightened by you. They just go about there business.
Bode is having a grand time being able to look at these animals so close up. He’s even interested when we find the skeletal remains of some of them. This trip is bound to cover all the kindergarten science he should be learning this year.
As every day here, there are still hundreds of lizards, iguanas and sea lions to entertain us. If you get sick of sea lion photos, imagine how many we went through to edit it down to these few. Cute as they are, these guys are more amazing in person.
blue footed bubi I hear they are good to eat, did you guys get to try any? looks like you guys are having fun
WOW!
i’m pretty sure that this trip blows every science class from now until high school out of the water.
talk about getting a head start in science; bode’s got it!
thank you for all of the pictures…nature is truly inspiring, isn’t it?
woohoo!
for clarity, my – WOW! – was in reference to angela’s bikini body (not the nature) ; )
“for clarity, my – WOW! – was in reference to angela’s bikini body (not the nature) ; )”
Lucky that a woman made this comment… 😀
I told you beforehand to take your computer onto the boat; if we wouldn’t have sorted and deleted some photos each day we probably would have come off the boat with over 4000 photos (after presort it was still over 2000, which I cut down to around 750 – that took ‘only’ a week…).
Hey Juergen –
We did take the laptop, but found it impossible to go back to the berth and edit photos instead of enjoying the trip with the rest of the gang!
And, Angela now insists that I be featured in the next bikini photo. Can’t wait to read the comments 😉
Jason
We just sat in the lounge area, with several other travellers using their laptops, clicking and deleting photos, and chatting at the same time… Only a couple of times during afternoon open water cruises from one island to the other (as soon as you’re near land you want to have a look at it). It was kinda fun to see other peoples’ photographs, and even swap a few back and forth (the one behind the lens is never in the picture, so you have to get a shot from others).
My comment wasn’t meant as criticism in any form!!
Enjoy the rest of the trip – I’ll be back (here and South America).
😉 Juergen
I love the photo of Bode and the blue-footed bird eying each other!