Virtual Galápagos

Tuesday, 31 July

Our 2013 non-Phaeton adventures are just 19 days away.  Where will we go?  The unveiling of our plans will be posted soon.

In the meantime, the prospect of tons of new video footage to process was all the incentive Mui needed to finish the editing work on last year’s wonderful trip to the Galápagos.

If you’d like to take a virtual trip to the Galápagos and walk in our footsteps, click here to go to the online album we created on Vimeo.  You will get to visit Santiago, Rábida, Isabela, Bartolomé, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, San Cristóbal, and Kicker Rock; not to mention explore Quito and its environs with us.  You will get to enjoy close encounters with fearless wildlife on land and sea, and in the air; and get to do some snorkeling, too.

If you’re interested in the story of our trip, click here to go to the first of many posts from our Itinerary B Xpedition trip with Celebrity.  All of the posts are in the July 2012 archive in the sidebar.

North Seymour: Nesting Blue-Footed Boobies Wrap Up Our Day

Thursday, 12 July (Part V)

One of the reasons we picked July to visit the Galápagos was the weather — reasonable temps; lower humidity; dry season, so less rain.  The other reason was the wildlife calendar!  Ever since we saw our first documentary about the archipelago, we’ve had it in our minds that we wanted to visit here to see the blue-footed boobies.  July seemed to give us what we wanted.

The Galápagos Conservancy website indicates that there are 56 native species of birds in the archipelago, 45 (80%) of which are endemic and the remainder are indigenous (native to the Galápagos, but found elsewhere as well) — more details here.  Since the blue-footed booby falls into the indigenous category, it might seem odd to some that we would pick a non-endemic bird to guide our decision for coming here.  But there was a method to our madness — we wanted to see them in an environment where they didn’t fear humans and would thus be more accessible.  We certainly got our wish during our afternoon landing on North Seymour.

To be sure, the front end of the trail gave us excellent sightings of the male frigatebirds with their gular pouches inflated (post here), but we were especially delighted to finally get to the area of the island where the boobies were sitting on nests.

Blue-footed boobies take turns incubating the eggs.  On this nest, the male is
sitting and the female is standing watch.  How do I know which is which?
Take a look at the eyes; the male has more yellow on the iris.

no booby on this nest, but you can clearly see the “guano ring” that forms the nest
boundary.  this boundary is created as the sitting booby turns to face the sun
throughout the day.  Boobies recognize their chicks only by location.  A chick that is
within the circle is considered ‘kin’ and is cared for by the parents.  If a chick falls
outside the ring — either by accident or because it is pushed out by its sibling — then it’s
not cared for by the parents.  Not only that, it’s not allowed to return to the nest either.

Proud papa gets up to show off the egg he’s incubating!
eggs are laid 3-5 days apart, and number anywhere from one egg to three.

These chicks still have their “goose-bump skin,” which means that they are recent hatchlings.

Hungry hatchling; or just protesting the weight of the parent :-)
Chicks can’t regulate their body temperature until they are about a month old,
so the parents will take turns doing it for them.

The harsh reality is that if there isn’t enough regurgitated food for both chicks, only
the bigger chick will be fed to ensure at least one survives.  The older chick may even
peck its sibling to death or push it outside the nest ring to ensure it gets more food.

This pair is nesting at the edge of the visitor trail; the perimeter rocks must have been
placed by naturalists (ours or from another boat) to ensure the pair is not disturbed.
They won’t stress unless someone approaches the guano ring boundary of the nest.

The egg-laying sequence (3-5 days apart) usually determines the hatching sequence too.
A closer look at this pair reveals that mama is sitting on at least one hatchling and one egg.

One of the boobies we saw near the end of the trail had an older hatchling.  Though it had more of the fluffy down plumage, it didn’t look like the chick was ready to fledge yet.  This chick was vigorously begging to be fed.  Periodically, both birds would turn their heads up to search the sky.  Obviously they were hoping papa would be back soon with food.

Though both parents will eventually be responsible for feeding the chicks, the longer tail the male has in relation to its body size allows him to make shallower dives, and thus feed closer to shore.  This in turn means he can bring food back to the nest more quickly and more frequently, so initially the feeding responsibility lies with the male.

Well, papa did come back, and we were excited to be able to see him regurgitate-feed the chick.  It wasn’t meant to be.  Just as he landed, we had to move on.  Almost everyone else in our group had already gone back to the zodiacs and were waiting on us.  Shoot!

Feed me; Feed me!

I’m guessing this chick is several weeks old.  Since eggs hatch 3-5 days apart,
It’s doubtful that the unhatched egg is still viable.

The one behavior we did not see on this visit was the courtship dance; at least not in its entirety.  It’s an interesting sight, with the male crooking his wings and raising first one blue foot in the air, then the other, as he shows off his brilliant blue feet to the female.  We saw a couple of the males do this for a second or two only.  (The blue-footed booby link in the first paragraph of this post has a short video for those interested.)

On our way back to the landing site, we stopped to take a few quick shots of sea lions and swallow-tailed gulls.  Didn’t get many photos, however, as  we had to hurry along to join our group at the zodiac to return to the ship.

Sea lions doing what they do a lot of — sleep!

We start our visit to North Seymour with swallow-tailed gulls; and we end it with them as well.

We spent about 1½ hours on the trail; could have spent twice as long and still not be bored.  It would have been great to sit with the boobies for a while and really observe their behavior.  I realize there are conservation practices in place that restrict our time.  I understand why.  That doesn’t mean I have to like them.

We were back on the ship shortly after 6:30p.  Clean up, download photos, attend the briefing for tomorrow’s activities, go to dinner — in other words, the same routine as the days past.  With one exception.  We were invited to share a table with Linda and Sheldon (from Houston, TX) and their travelmates, Ellen and Bob.  As we’ve all traveled considerably over the years, there was no lack of conversation at the table.

The food turned out to have some challenges tonight.  You’ll note in our menu selections below that we both had items that we didn’t care for.  No problem; our waiter was more than happy to change them out.  In my case, the problem was the brujo.  Mui had the same dish and didn’t have any complaints; both Sheldon and I thought our fish was just not done right.  Instead we ordered the tagliatelle to split.  Mui’s bad luck was with dessert.  When his first selection didn’t live up to his expectations, the kitchen happily prepared a soufflé for him.

Our selections from the Day 5 menu.

The night sky did not provide any opportunities for stargazing, so we returned to the cabin after dinner to just chill before bedtime.  Tomorrow, we will be visiting the oldest island on our itinerary …

North Seymour: Nesting Frigatebirds and More

Thursday, 12 July (Part IV)

The second afternoon activity at North Seymour offered two options — a long walk that was described as rocky, or a zodiac ride and optional short walk.  Without hesitation, we took the first option.  The walk was about 1.2 miles (2 km) in length and took us along an inland trail, making a loop back to the dry landing site where we started out.  Yes, there were some rather big rocks on the trail, but for the most part it was a dirt/sand path that we found easy to walk.  We took about 1½ hours to complete the trail, so I’d say that the outing wasn’t really all that difficult.  And even had it been strenuous, it would have been worth it.

We were in the last zodiac to leave the ship shortly after 4:30p.  To give the groups ahead of us a bit of time to clear the landing site, we did a slow cruise by the cliffs first.  The bonus from the boat ride was our first sighting of the near-endemic Swallow-Tailed Gull, the only bird in the gull family that is fully nocturnal, preying and feeding at night.

The black head and bright red eye ring indicate that this bird is in its breeding plumage.

the plumage of An immature swallow-tailed gull differs from that of the adults.

I was going for a shot of the gull when the boat dipped between waves;
I never even saw the lava heron until I looked at this picture on the laptop.

Got to nurse on that fatty milk to grow up fast.

North Seymour was the island that held the promise of seeing nesting blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds; it did not disappoint.

Our frigatebird sightings started almost immediately.  I’m going to go on a limb and say that they were magnificent instead of great frigatebirds, because the males made a kind of rattling sound when vocalizing, and the eye ring on the females was blue.  But the two species do nest side by side, so it’s possible there was a mix.

We’d already seen frigatebirds following the ship, but this landing was our chance to see the male birds with their big red “pick me, I’m more macho” gular pouches fully inflated.  And what a sight they were.  I had no idea they could fly with the pouches inflated, but there was a bunch of them doing just that.

Anything to attract a mate!

And in the trees and bushes, there weren’t just one or two of these males displaying, but quite a large number of them.  The mating season was obviously well underway, with seemingly every male going all out to attract a mate.  What surprised me the most was that despite the ‘mine is bigger than yours’ pouch-inflating activity, often several males shared a branch.  When I asked Alexis about this, he said that together they formed a bigger red target to attract the females.

the pouches can be inflated for periods of up to 20 minutes!

Though the male helps by collecting materials, it’s the female that constructs the nest.

Half of Two to Travel gets a photo op with the frigatebirds.

Paired up!  the male spreads his wings to protect the female from other males.
(frigatebirds are seasonally monogamous.)

The frigatebird chick is dependent on its parents for feeding for about a year.

Juvenile to adult plumage maturation can take as long as 4-6 years.

After we left the frigatebird nesting area behind, we encountered several new-to-us species, starting with the endemic Galápagos land iguana.  Darwin obviously didn’t care much for iguanas — be they marine or land.  He described this species as “… ugly animals, of a yellowish orange beneath, and of a brownish-red colour above; from their low facial angle they have a singularly stupid appearance.”  What can I say; just like the marine iguanas, I found their land-based cousins charming.

The land iguana obtains the majority of its water from the prickly pear cactus,
which makes up 80% of its diet.

In the early 1930s, not understanding why no iguanas were present on the island,
William Randolph Hearst translocated a population of Land Iguanas from Baltra to
North Seymour.  Hearst's translocated iguanas survived, and became the breeding
stock for the Charles Darwin Station captive breeding program.  Land iguanas,
which had since gone extinct on Baltra, were thus reintroduced to the island.

Alexis doing a ‘show and tell’ about the diet of the land iguana.  The proof is in the poop!
Land iguanas are herbivorous, but will supplement their diet with insects and carrion.

Though the endemic Galápagos dove is supposed to be quite common, today’s sighting of one right in the middle of trail was another first for us.  We’re not serious birders by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s been fun to see such a variety of the avian species on this trip; especially since they aren’t skittish and don’t fly away at the slightest sound or movement.

Love that brilliant blue eye ring that contrasts with the dove’s otherwise muted colors.

One of the reasons we came to the Galápagos was to see the blue-footed boobies, and it seems only right that I post about them separately — especially since I can’t seem to limit the photos I took of them this afternoon to just one or two.  So, that’s it for this post …

North Seymour: Deepwater Snorkel

Thursday, July 12 (Part III)

We returned to the ship from our morning activity on Santa Cruz shortly after 11:30a to cold washcloths and tasty fruit juices set up on deck 4 aft.  A few minutes to get cleaned up and we were ready for some sustenance.

On the lunch menu today was a delicious Oriental buffet with the bonus of a made-to-order stir-fry station.  Instead of having our meal in the Darwin Restaurant, we collected what we wanted from the buffet and headed up to the Blue Finch Bar on deck 5.  We’ve yet to see the bar open on this sailing, but the tables are always there and the waiters are happy to bring us our drinks from the lounge on deck 4.

It was just too nice a day to be inside, so we skipped the screening of part three of the BBC documentary about the archipelago since we’d watched it at home just weeks before.  Instead, we snagged a couple of the loungers on deck 6 and relaxed in the cooling breezes as the ship repositioned the short distance to North Seymour Island, where we had two activities planned for the afternoon.

The arrow points to the site of our afternoon activities on and around North Seymour.
[map courtesy of the GalapagosIslands.com website]

North Seymour is considered to be the twin of Baltra, which is sometimes referred to as South Seymour.  Named after an English nobleman, this small island was formed by the uplift of a submarine lava formation.  It is apparently quite similar to Baltra, except there is no human population on North Seymour, just interesting critters.

The first activity of the afternoon was a deepwater snorkel.  Mui went, of course, while I used the time to draft blog entries as I continued to relax on deck 6.

All I know is that the zodiacs took the snorkelers around the boat on the left
to the other side of this islet that is barely above the surface of the ocean.

Those wishing to participate in the activity geared up on deck 3 aft and were taken to the snorkel site by zodiac; no beach entrance for this one.  Mui said that there was quite a bit of wave action at the site, and the water was cold and murky in most places (plankton again).  His best fish encounters were near the rocks and underwater ledges, but he didn’t see anything he hadn’t seen already.

One last snorkel in Galápagos waters.

This was the last snorkel event of the cruise.  When the snorkelers returned to the Xpedition, all equipment was rinsed one last time and turned over to the naturalists.  Mui was glad for the opportunity to get in the water one more time, but later, we wondered if we might have had more time on North Seymour during the second afternoon activity if the snorkel had not been scheduled for this day.   We’ll never know!