Day 5: South Plaza & Santa Fe Islands
Midpoint + 1
BIRDS AND REPTILES
Day 5 begins at 8 am on South Plaza island - incoming southeast trade winds provide welcome updrafts for seabirds. Lots of cactus on the ground means plenty of food for the seabirds' relatives - the iguanas.
Over half-way through the trip and feel - if there is much more to see, it can't possibly top what we've seen already - the waved albatross, the marine turtles, the land behemoths, the turquoise water, the contrast of cactus gardens and lush green hillsides. It's a lot to take in!
Endemic species:
Swallow-tailed gull
(Creagrus furcates)
The island cliffs provide safe nesting sites for the adults and refuge for the hatchlings. The young birds begin life with white heads and dark eye rings. As they mature their heads gradually become dark gray and the eye rings turn brilliant red.
An unexpectedly wide wingspan when this young bird unfurls and stretches!
Endemic species:
Galapagos shearwater
(Puffinus subalaris)
Galapagos (dark-rumped) petrel
(Pterodroma phaeopygia)
Both Galapagos shearwaters and Galapagos petrels share these cliffs and skies with the swallow-tailed gulls, lava gulls, red-billed tropicbirds and magnificent frigate birds.
Endemic species:
Lava gull
(Leucophaeus 'Larus' fuliginosus)
Free Spirit
Red-billed tropicbird
(Phaethon aethereus
Magnificent frigatebird
(Fregata magnificens magnificens) - wow! two magnificens!!
Yellow warbler playing peek-a-boo.
Yellow warbler (Dendroica petechial aureola)
Persistent little guys, these colorful yellow warblers brightened our days on several of the islands, often hitching rides on the Islander. I saw at least one on five of our eight days - both at sea and on the islands.
Endemic species:
Galapagos land iguana
(Conolophus
subcristatus)
Of the six islands on which the Galapagos land lizard is found, South Plaza has the most opportunities for viewing. This species is typically found in the lowlands on the drier parts of Santa Cruz, Fernandina, South Plaza, Isabela, North Seymour and Baltra.
80% of its diet is the prickly-pear cactus. You can see a good biteful is missing from this cactus, maybe eaten by this fellow.
Being cold-blooded they absorb heat during the daytime by basking on rocks and at nighttime conserve heat by sleeping in underground burrows like the one below.
The Santa Fe and Galapagos land iguanas are very similar, with the Santa Fe being paler and with a more tapered snout. This pair may be Santa Fe land iguanas.
As we were making our way back to the trail to re-board the zodiacs, we saw this bevy of frigatebirds in some kind of group feeding frenzy. It's hard to make out but notice the focus on the red pouch on the rocks.
The birds above look distorted because of the extensive cropping to magnify the red pouch on the rocks - which is what the birds are after. Unknown to us at the time, it was the placenta from a sea lion birth that had happened just moments before.
Endemic species:
Galapagos sea lion
(Zalophus wollebaeki)
Marine iguana
(Amblyrhynchus crostatas
As we continued hiking along the cliffs, we passed one of the largest colonies of Galapagos sea lions in the archipelago.
This poor thing is a hybrid - neither this nor that; a result of mating between a Galapagos land iguana and a Marine iguana. They do not have a species name and cannot reproduce. They are easily recognizable by the light-colored lines that run from the top of its head down both sides of its neck.
As we followed the trail down to the zodiacs, we came upon this little guy - a newly-born Galapagos sea lion pup, and a little further on, his anxious mama.
REUNITED!!
This pup had been born about 15-20 minutes before we ran into him. Our naturalist guides recognized the frigatebird behavior immediately and guessed what had happened - the birds had swooped in and grabbed the placenta just after the pup was born.
We snapped a few quick photos of mom and pup, but mom began to get anxious with all the strangers around, so we quickly scooted off down the trail, over a few rocks and into our zodiacs.
One of my favorite images: Sally lightfoot crab
