The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

The last stop of the cruise was in Darwin Bay on Genovesa. Part of the walk was inaccessible due to the high tide so we had time to sit and watch the wildlife as you will see based on the length of the post.

There were more red footed boobies here.

Boobies!

Boobies!

BOOBIES!!!!!

There were also more Nazca boobies.

And something even better!

Fluffy baby boobies!

Matt thinks that because baby boobies don’t do much

Like move.

You should only need one or two pictures of baby boobies.

Boys are dumb

Unlike baby boobies, teenage red footed boobies are really ugly brown, with no colour.

They don’t have pretty pink feet like their parents either.

That look so awkward for gripping branches.

While most red-footed boobies are brownish,1 in 20 has a pearly white coat like the nazca boobies.

While still having the pretty blue and pink face and feet.

And ridiculous look.

Especially when squawking.

And squawking.

And squawking.

There were other birds too.

Like this lava heron.

He had scaly feet.

And more frigate birds, but you’ve seen lots of those already.

These are swallow tailed gulls.

They have very big eyes because they are nocturnal.

They follow the boat at night making screeching and clicking noises.

And mostly sleep during the day.

They have pink webbed feet.

These are lava gulls.

They are as flexible as the owls.

But look even funnier stretching.

Then there were the sea lions. This guy was sleeping peacefully on the beach.

While his brother played in the bay with a mangrove shoot.

Basically playing fetch with himself.

Tossing it into the air

And then swimming out and carrying it back to shore.

It often involved rolling and flipping.

Then he lost his stick.

So he needed to find something else to play with.

So he galloped out of the water.

To find his poor brother.

Stop howling! I’m trying to sleep!

What’s he doing over there?

Oh good, he’s taking a break to scratch.

Get off me!

I said get off of me!

OK, you win.

Get off of my head!

Please go away.

Thanks.

Don’t scratch in my face!

Dude, you got sand all over me!

I’m going to get you for that!

This is not a fair fight.

Why won’t you leave me alone?

I’m telling Dad!

Sigh.

No slapping!

Maybe if I hide behind this rock he won’t see me!

Or maybe I can scare him off looking ferocious.

Please?

OK.

OK, fine! I’ll go in the water with you!

Maybe I can sleep in the water?

Bye bye baby booby.

We also snorkelled in the caldera of Genovesa island and saw several new things. Including some big things further down in the post. Now that the water was warmer (26C) Kerri would free dive down more often.

We saw a golden guiniafowl pufferfish.

He looked funny.

The long fish may be a trumpetfish.

There were several types of fish we hadn’t see before. I think this is a school of fish that are actually caught for food.

This was another fish we hadn’t seen previously.

But more importantly, we also saw some hammerhead sharks.

There was a big one and two smaller ones.

They swam past us a couple times sometimes shallower and sometimes deeper.

They were really cool to watch, even though they weren’t around for very long.

The guide mentioned that they sometimes are found in this area as they get cleaned here.

They are far more common to see on the North islands (Wolf and Darwin) but you only go up there to dive. It was really cool to see another type of shark on this trip and on the very last day too.

It was a wet morning on Genovesa, the bird island.

The fur seals were sleeping upside down.

Most of the birds did not seem impressed by the rain.

Particularly the frigatebirds.

The baby booby was hiding his head.

But it is good for the incense trees.

This island was actually looking a bit green!

Fortunately it dried out later in the morning and the frigatebirds looked much happier.

Most of them had not yet inflated their pouches though.

But one was flying with a full pouch, which looked really funny.

These are nazca boobies. We saw one yesterday but not from close up.

They are a beautiful white colour.

And we finally got to see red footed boobies!

Kerri’s favourite boobies!

She wants to rename them pink footed boobies though.

They live in trees and grip the branches with their pink feet.

They are really pretty with blue eyes and pink beaks.

But still really funny looking because they are boobies.

Here is one showing off her wings.

And even better, a baby booby!

He is so fluffy!

We saw two new types of finch. This is the large ground finch.

His beak is as big as his head, making him look like a parrot!

He eats really big seeds.

This guy refused to stand still for a picture, but he is a sharp-beaked ground finch. He eats insects. But his relatives on Wolf and Darwin islands (where humans aren’t allowed, and water is really scarce) drink blood from other birds, earning them the nickname “vampire finch”. They think that they originally picked parasites off of other birds, but with their sharp beaks they accidentally drew blood, and discovered that this is a good source of water.

Then we went owl spotting. Can you spot the owl in this picture?

Now he is looking right at you.

Here is a closeup.

Fortunately one came closer and posed for us.

He didn’t seem too impressed by us.

But he leaned in to get a closer look.

He stretched his wings a bit.

Then he flew off.

And looked back at us over his shoulder.

Owls are extremely flexible.

And have feathers on their feet for some reason.

Can you spot him now? His wings are extended.

He’s right here in front of the sign.

There. He made it easy for you.

It’s a good thing we brought binoculars.

He hunts those little birds in the background.

There are tons of them to choose from.

That’s why he is awake during the day.

Most owls are nocturnal, but most owls eat rodents. There are no rodents to eat on Genovesa.