Galapagos Islands Adventure 2009 – Part 5

North Seymour lies across a channel from Baltra (aka South Seymour), the former WWII US Military base. Teeming with wildlife, North Seymour is a breeding seabird showcase. The image above reveals another island, Daphne Major (right side of the frame), off limits to visitors but made famous by the Grants’ Pulitzer Prize winning book Beak of the Finch. Daphne Major helped the Grants show that adaptation can happen over a few generations and did not need thousands of years as was previously thought.

Here on North Seymour, we will see a few Darwin’s Finches… mainly Small and Medium Ground Finches. However, the main attraction here are the frigatebirds and boobies. Above, a Great Frigatebird female feeds a chick by regurgitating the morning’s catch and allowing the chick to dig deep inter her crop.

Like most Galapagos birds and animals, this female Great Frigatebird posed endlessly as I tried different angles. The white on her front goes all the way to her chin… this along with the red eye-ring identifies her as a Great rather than a Magnificent Frigatebird.

This male Blue-footed Booby (ID’d as a male by its small pupil) eventually offered a dance for its returning mate. Blue-footed Boobies can dive to 100 feet underwater to catch a meal!

And that’s a good thing, because their chick needs a lot of food! Rarely do Blue-footed Boobies raise more than one chick. In fact we have witnessed siblicide among Blue-footed as well as Nazca Booby chicks. There can be only one.

There are not too many Marine Iguanas on this island–usually just small ones–as their preferred food supply is limited. This one is absorbing the morning sun so it can dive into the cold water to feed.

Endemic Galapagos Doves are quite common on North Seymour. Their odd shape and white wing-flash make it quickly recognizable in flight.

This pair of frigatebirds have bonded and will nest in the Saltbush that covers the island. Notice that the female has a blue eye-ring and a black throat, identifying this pair as Magnificent Frigatebirds.