Thursday 14 January

Darwin Bay – Genovesa Island

We were woken at around 6am when the anchor was lowered (our cabin is at the bow, on the port side). Genovesa Island is the rim of an extinct volcano, whilst the Darwin Bay is the core of the volcano. The edge of the bay is mostly sheer stone walls.

As breakfast was an hour off, Lesley went upstairs and out on to the foredeck to take photos of the sunrise.  Whilst there she and a couple of others were watching a white red-footed Boobie sitting on the railing a couple of metres away when it took off to investigate another ship.

It (we like to believe it was the same one!) returned a few minutes later and hovered just above Lesley’s and Nigel’s heads and then landed on the rail an arm’s length away. Nigel (an Englishman) was horrified, and Lesley was delighted. A photo taken by the other person present shows this!

  

After breakfast we were back into the pangas to cross to the island to do a small walk around the back of a beach. On the way to the beach for a wet landing (ie have to step off the panga into water) a white red-footed Boobie (wondering if it was the same one as earlier?) landed on Nigel’s shoulder. Everyone, including the guides) were fascinated, taking photos. Nigel wasn’t quite so keen! It pecked at his back, preened his hair, knocked his cap over his face, then pecked at Lesley’s hat (she was sitting beside Nigel). The guides with years of experience had never seen this happen before.  

Whilst on the island we saw plenty of all three types of Boobies (Red Footed, Blue Footed and Nazca) including fledgling Red-footed Boobies. Two very young Galapagos Sea Lions (a day old, still with umbilical cord attached, and two days old) and two female sea lions and a solitary male were also on the beach. One of the female sea lions was in a sandy pool and looked very pregnant (baby moving a lot!) – may even have been in the process of giving birth.

blue-footed boobie

chick for brown red-footed boobie

    

brown red-footed boobie

 

female frigatebird

male frigatebird, looking for a female

 

swallow-tailed gull

Nazca boobie pair

pregnant sea lion

We returned to the ship to change and don life jackets in readiness for us going kayaking around the rim of the bay. The kayaks were plastic two-seater sea kayaks. Although, neither of us had done any kayaking for many years, the skill had not disappeared. Along the bay rim we saw Galapagos Fur Seals which were lying asleep on rocks/rock ledges, sometimes many metres above the current water level (at high tide mark).

After lunch it was back on the pangas and across the bay for a climb up the cliff via stars and a walk across the rim to look for Frigatebirds and the Short-eared owl. Both were seen and photographed. Whilst walking along the path through the scrub we had to step around Boobies. None of the birds were afraid of us, as the island has no predators. The National Park rule is not to approach closer than 2 metres and keep to tracks. This doesn’t stop the wildlife sitting on the track/path of walking up to you. 

Once we were across the rim and out of the scrub, it was time to look for the elusive Short-eared Owl which sits on the ground near crevasses waiting for petrels to return for the night. Our guide found one owl some 150m away by using binoculars, but later walked past one sitting only a metre and a half off the path. Walking not far behind her, Stuart pointed it out to her. She was ecstatic, as this owl is her favourite Galapagos bird and she’s never seen one so close.