Galapagos, Day 12: Genovesa Island, Part II

Ecuador Trip: Day 12

Galapagos Cruise: Day 7

We wound up Genovesa Island, Part I with a picture of a baby Booby. If you haven’t seen it already, pop down to the last post and take a look. I’ll wait.

Wasn’t it cute?

I have a funny story about the baby Boobies on Genovesa. Our naturalist guide was always showing us stuff we considered uniquely incredible, and Genovesa was no different. He spotted a baby Booby nested in a bush, and he had us gather around while he showed us how well he had the babies “trained.” If you stand in front of a baby Booby and move your finger up and down, or around in circles, its eyes and head will follow your finger. So at first we thought only Harry could do this. But then my husband tried it, and the baby Booby followed my husband’s finger, too. It was quite comical.

The video is on my Facebook page. I would embed it here, but I tried and the embedding follows the privacy settings on Facebook and also comes out huge. So it would behoove me to behoove you to visit my author page, click “Like” while you’re there, click on Photos, then click on Videos, then click on Baby Booby Being a Bobo. It’s a short, 4-second video, but very cute.

While you’re there, feel free to explore the other Galapagos videos on the page.

Last time I said we saw our first Red-Footed Boobies on Genovesa Island. There’s one above. Beautiful blue beak and those lovely red feet! There were no Blue-Footed Boobies on Genovesa, which worried me. Would we see them again? The following day, on Sullivan Island, we had Blue-Footed Boobies coming out our ears.

 

The view from Genovesa. Even the Boobies in the foreground were awed by the simplicity of this beautiful spot on earth. ALL those little black dots are birds, birds, birds, flying around us, whizzing past us, diving into the water. Our guide would shout, “Look!” and then “Look!” Harry’s enthusiasm was contagious. It was a look-fest!

 

When I saw this young Magnificent Frigatebird (not to be confused with the Great Frigatebirds showed in Part I – those guys have the red pouches), I was quite alarmed.

“Is it dead?” I asked Harry.

“No.” Harry shook his head. “Bad landing.”

Bad landing? In another few seconds, the juvenile got up, shook itself off, and flew away. Apparently, it was merely “practicing.”
All birds who experience “bad landings” are not as lucky. Some might break a wing (which we saw on Espanola during Week 2 of our trip). Those who do damage themselves too much will wind up starving to death. They are culled, so to speak. Survival of the fittest. Darwinism at work. Sad to realize, but that’s the reality of wildlife everywhere, not just in the Galapagos.

 

Not totally sure, but this might be a Lava Heron. It looks like Phyllis Diller sporting a new wig. Can’t let those Boobies hog all the camera time!

 

Leaving “The Cliff” and on our way to lunch, after which we visited Darwin Bay for snorkeling and swimming. Whereas, at “The Cliff” we felt all alone in the world with the birds, at Darwin Bay we had to share the beautiful beach with two other boats. “Awwwwww.” However, we are not greedy. We were willing to share.

 

The beach where we swam. Now you see why I needed two posts to accurately portray the beauty of Genovesa Island? Some of our group snorkeled, while LP and That Woman from Arizona swam back to the boat. SK and BP, I believe, took a panga ride back to the boat to have cervezas. Meanwhile, Moi and That Man from Arizona floated around in the water and enjoyed the sun. A bird nearly “deposited” on me. However, I am so dexterous, I dodged the bullet.

 

There’s the darn bird now!