Genovesa Island
Today we woke up with a beautiful sunrise bathing the island of Genovesa, while many red footed boobies were leaving the island for their daily trip to fish. Today is Thanksgiving Day and is a special day to celebrate in this magical archipelago. The morning was amazing as hundreds of frigatebirds were flying over Darwin Bay, trying to get an opportunity to steal their morning meal from other birds. The sea lions were just waking up and started to play next to groups of swallowtail gulls, pelicans and tiny marine iguanas.
In my group I met a couple of scientists, Donna Harris and Stephen Gregory from the group Wildcru (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) of Oxford University along with the Charles Darwin Foundation. They have been living on the island of Santiago for 24 months in a camp with tents and tools to do their extensive research. They wake up every morning at 3 am to record their observations on rice rats before sunrise. Donna and Stephen have placed 100 traps to find the rice rats, which they then weigh and observe their behavior. Rice rats were declared to be extinct on Santiago Island but were re-discovered only a few years ago. They are studying what are the relationships and interference that is being caused by black rats on rice rats. Black rats were introduced to the island by ships four hundred years ago and have displaced an enormous population of rice rats.
During our afternoon outing we had the wonderful opportunity to find dozens of red billed tropic birds coming back to the cliff were they find a place to spend the night and nest. As we landed we found dozens of boobies displaying their courting rituals, especially the red-footed and Nazca boobies. Suddenly a group of dolphins showed up while they found an area with lots of fish and they immediately started a feeding frenzy along with boobies and pelicans.
There she blows! Somebody shouted and a whale spout appeared in the distance. The area was filled with Nazca boobies that were actually very active while they were feeding their young and others were nesting. As the afternoon ended we encountered a fantastic farewell during sunset, when a Green Flash appeared on the horizon. Thank you, dear Galápagos Islands, for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this little paradise on earth.
Today we woke up with a beautiful sunrise bathing the island of Genovesa, while many red footed boobies were leaving the island for their daily trip to fish. Today is Thanksgiving Day and is a special day to celebrate in this magical archipelago. The morning was amazing as hundreds of frigatebirds were flying over Darwin Bay, trying to get an opportunity to steal their morning meal from other birds. The sea lions were just waking up and started to play next to groups of swallowtail gulls, pelicans and tiny marine iguanas.
In my group I met a couple of scientists, Donna Harris and Stephen Gregory from the group Wildcru (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit) of Oxford University along with the Charles Darwin Foundation. They have been living on the island of Santiago for 24 months in a camp with tents and tools to do their extensive research. They wake up every morning at 3 am to record their observations on rice rats before sunrise. Donna and Stephen have placed 100 traps to find the rice rats, which they then weigh and observe their behavior. Rice rats were declared to be extinct on Santiago Island but were re-discovered only a few years ago. They are studying what are the relationships and interference that is being caused by black rats on rice rats. Black rats were introduced to the island by ships four hundred years ago and have displaced an enormous population of rice rats.
During our afternoon outing we had the wonderful opportunity to find dozens of red billed tropic birds coming back to the cliff were they find a place to spend the night and nest. As we landed we found dozens of boobies displaying their courting rituals, especially the red-footed and Nazca boobies. Suddenly a group of dolphins showed up while they found an area with lots of fish and they immediately started a feeding frenzy along with boobies and pelicans.
There she blows! Somebody shouted and a whale spout appeared in the distance. The area was filled with Nazca boobies that were actually very active while they were feeding their young and others were nesting. As the afternoon ended we encountered a fantastic farewell during sunset, when a Green Flash appeared on the horizon. Thank you, dear Galápagos Islands, for giving me the opportunity to enjoy this little paradise on earth.
