Travels to the Galápagos

Travels to the Galápagos

Sunday, February 10, 2002

Española

Punta Suarez

Overnight we sailed to Española. We learned by e-mail from my sister this morning that our dog is doing much better, which made me feel much better as well.

A short Zodiac ride took us to Punta Suarez on the western end of Española, the oldest and southeastern-most of the islands.

What a morning! It started out hot and sunny. The sun went in and out of clouds, and finally stayed behind the clouds for a while. It was considerable more pleasant when overcast due to the intensity of the equatorial sun.

There were maybe twenty or so Galápagos sea lions (formerly called California sea lions, Galápagos race) at the landing site. Here we observed for the first time what we would see repeatedly throughout the week: The National Geographic/PBS propaganda really is true - these animals have no fear of humans, and some are affirmatively curious about us. It's one of those things that one can understand intellectually from a distance, but is only truly appreciated by personal experience.

A bull sea lion barked warnings to would-be usurpers. (We saw none). The females seemed to pay him no mind. There were juveniles of various ages: two days, two months, one year. The two-day old still had its umbilicus attached, and was calling for mother - who was presumably out catching fish to help her make milk for junior. The sea lions are very cute, both young and old, but especially the youngsters. They remind the visitor of dogs who need a good belly-rub. But our group is well-behaved, and no one tries to touch any of the animals.

There were hoards of marine iguanas at the landing site, basking on the black lava rocks near the shore. The most colorful of the marine iguanas are found on Española - they may even be a separate species. In breeding colors, which they are displaying now, females are red-on-black, and males are green-on-red-on-black. Black juveniles scampered over the rocks. Molting skin was prominent on some of the iguanas.

At a sea bird colony a short way along the trail, there were mostly Nazca boobies. The adults are mostly white, with a black "mask" around the eyes. A number had white chicks in the nest, large and downy. Some were nesting - both males and females brood the eggs and care for the young. Nests are just patches of rock to my eyes, but we saw a male arranging pebbles and feathers in a nascent nest to attract a female - presumably a holdover from ancestors who made more conventional nests.

On a ridge above, two male iguanas battled for a patch of territory. The battle primarily involved head-bobbing and head-butting. Although no visible damage resulted, the challenger soon retreated back over the ridge, leaving the victor bobbing his head in triumph.

Boobies lay two eggs a few days a part, and the older usually practices siblicide against the younger. The parents do not intervene We saw the grisly evidence in a few desiccated corpses of chicks lying on the ground. Such behavior can make sense for some species in some environments, when considered in the cold, uncaring calculus of natural selection.

A juvenile Nazca Booby - essentially full-sized, but with brown plumage, was right in the middle of the path (literally). Not only was it not frightened of us, it was curious. It followed us a short distance down the trail, and it moved and opened its bill slightly to track something shiny in front of it, such as a pair of sunglasses.

Hood mockingbirds were also curious, coming up to us and even trying to steal water from us. (Española was formerly known as Hood Island.) These birds have relatively long, curved beaks. Two or three juveniles (almost as large as their parent) fought for breakfast.

Our first positively-identified finches were a small group of small ground finches, picking up seeds from the ground. Later, inland, in some acacia trees I observed what I believe were two finch nests - almost spherical, perhaps 25 cm (ten inches) in diameter, with a circular opening located, appropriately enough, on the nest's equator.

We espied a Galápagos Hawk some distance from the sea bird colony. As we approached a blow hole, it took wing, although we didn't see it attack anything. Occasional waves would cause a fountain of water to gush into the air through the blow hole, which was a narrow crack in the rocks.

There are only about four hundred hawk nests in the islands - it's not clear why the numbers are so low - perhaps due to a need for large territory. The Galápagos Hawk engages in "cooperative polyandry" - one female and several males cooperatively raise young. Supposedly the males are not brothers, which, if true, I find difficult to understand from an evolutionary perspective. But I also gather that definitive tests, e.g. DNA fingerprinting, has not been done to conclusively establish conclusively that the male "co-husbands" are not in fact related to one another. This would be an interesting research topic, if it has not previously been investigated.

Above a blow hole on the coast, perhaps 20 meters (60 ft.) below us, we saw sea lions playing in the pools, and saw one female Marine Iguana in a tide pool grazing on underwater algae. Other iguanas were content just to bask while we were there (mid-morning).

From the same vantage we could see two sheer lava cliffs farther off, each with hundreds of swallow-tailed gull nests. Great Frigates were always circling overhead, but so far we have not witnessed a Frigate attack another bird.

We saw a couple of plunge-dives by isolated blue-footed boobies, coming back up with fish.

There was an attempted iguana mating in the tide pools, but the female escaped with her virtue intact.

A walk inland, on a different trail back to our landing, passed through some acacia trees, most of which were brown, waiting for the rains. A few had green leaves. In other times of the year, this is a massive nesting site for the waved albatross. (In fact, it is the only nesting site for this albatross species anywhere in the world.) But during the rainy season, they have departed for other points.

Back at the landing site we saw some very colorful Sally Lightfoot crabs up close - brilliant red, smaller spots of bright blue and bright yellow. A smaller hermit crab scurried across the sand near our landing site.

The Española lava lizard, perhaps a separate species, scurried over rocks everywhere. The female is smaller, with a brown body and a red neck. The male is bigger, spikier, and has more red on his body.

Other creatures we saw at Punta Suarez: At the rocky and sandy beach landing, yellow-crowned night heron, a few brown pelicans, many translucent pink tunicates floating near the surface. At the sea bird roost: lava lizards, marine iguanas, swallow-tailed gull. Above the blow hole: swallow-tailed gull, lava lizards, Hood mockingbird, large fish in tide pools. Inland: Small Ground Finch, some spiders. Back at the shore: At the blow hole: some large fish in tide pools. Everywhere near the shore: Great frigate birds. We also found a partial sea lion tibia on the trail.

The sea lions so like the flat concrete landing installed by the Park that care was needed not to step in their droppings on the way back to the panga.

Gardner Bay

During lunch we sailed across the north side of Española to Gardner Bay. Española is a relatively low island, with fairly rounded hills. It is older than the other islands (at least those that are still above sea level).

Gardner Bay is a sandy beach with a few medium-sized rock islets offshore. My daughter and I snorkeled around one of them, Turtle Rock (Tortuga Islet), which is named for its shape. Water temperature 80°F. My wife and son snorkeled directly off Gardner Beach while we were at Turtle Rock.

I saw some king angelfish, bright blue with a yellow tail and one white stripe - very beautiful. Also an eagle ray. I didn't see much else during this snorkel, because my mask fogged badly (a problem solved during future snorkels), but I did see a school of small fish, many fish silhouettes, sea urchins, sea stars. Others saw a white-tipped reef shark, sea lion, lobsters, sea cucumber.

My wife and son reported seeing yellow-tailed surgeon fish, Sargent Majors, sea urchins, a moray eel swimming through green and red sea grass, a white-tipped reef shark, a school of baby barracuda, and many other kinds of fish. They also saw a bull sea lion courting a female.

After snorkeling, we all stayed on Gardner Beach about an hour-and-a-half. Gardner Beach is one of the few spots in the Galápagos National Park where tourists can roam, without direct supervision of a licensed guide (although one must be nearby).

The beach was pristine sand, not a speck of trash anywhere - literally, none. Sea lions were basking on the sand, quite happy to have humans wandering among them - mother sea lions, juveniles, pups. A group of four pups played together like dog puppies. Extremely cute. Some of the pups came up to check us out.





One pup sniffed my left leg, then my right, his whiskers tickling me. Then he opened his mouth and I felt his teeth - he didn't hurt me, he was playing like a puppy would. But he startled me, and I pulled back just in case. The kids were delighted by the sea lion pups, and vice versa. Another pup rubbed my wife's leg with its whiskers.

On the beach we also had great views of low-flying frigates. We also spotted a least sandpiper (I think), a migratory Franklin's gull, an infant sea lion skull, an adult sea lion vertebra, a dried eel, and a desiccated white-tipped reef shark (about two feet long).

We had no major incidents with the kids today, only a couple of minor fusses.

San Cristóbal was visible in outline on the north horizon. In the late afternoon we wrote postcards to send from Post Office Bay tomorrow.

From the deck on a crystal clear, moonless sky we saw Southern constellations - Unfortunately, I don't know the constellations very well, so I couldn't fully appreciate our perspective on the skies. Orion was directly overhead, which was unusual. The Milky Way was very distinct. The Southern Cross hadn't yet risen before we retired.

General note: most entries in this journal were not written contemporaneously, but later on the same day, during a break from activities. It is possible that my memory could have played tricks on me regarding where particular creatures were seen. I don't think I messed up in this way much, but wouldn't be shocked to learn that I had mis-located some creature or other every now and then. Any corrections you may note would be appreciated. Please forward them to [e-mail address].

Map of the Islands (from the Emory Law School website)