This morning we woke up to “bird day.” We had arrived at Genovese Island, renown for its bird population. The boat was already covered in young red footed boobies, exuberantly pooping on the deck.
We went out for a morning walk and saw all kinds of birds, including Darwin’s famous finches, then went for a rough snorkel, then kayaked.
Tiny baby sea lions
Frigate bird—they puff themselves up to attract females
A blue footed booby and a red footed booby
Martin and the frigate birds all trying to woo the ladies
A bunch of males puffed up to impress
The male frigate bird is kind of hugging the female that has just landed to his left. Apparently she checks to see if he has a good neck puff going on and then evaluates the nest he’s been building to see if this is a good situation for her before mating.
Another angle of frigate bird love.
A baby nasca booby showing us the way
Mom and baby blue footed booby
Nascaw booby
Galapagos dove, cousins of NYC turtle doves
Went for a snorkel, too! Saw hammerhead sharks 🦈 (very deep, did not bother anyone!) sea was pretty rough though, some of the group was 🤮
But we decided to power through and go for a kayak!
Back in the room to find new towel sting ray
After all that excitement, we watched an hour long documentary on Darwin’s life and are reminded that his ideas really were very revolutionary. Before him, no one dared question the idea that a divine being had created animals as fixed, perfect entities. He was physically ill from carrying this secret belief with him for so long (also ill from the Chagas’ disease he picked up on Brazil, but the combination of that plus this terrible secret was apparently terrible).
Then in the late afternoon we went for another walk on Genovese, where we saw a bunch of the same birds but also spotted a short-horned owl, which is a predator to the tiny admiral birds on the island. The landscape was unreal.
Fur seal!
Short horned owl
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