Galapagos Islands Adventure 2009 – Part 3
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Aug 13, 2009 | by Kevin Loughlin
The unassuming island of Floreana offers many great surprises. The reddish beach of finely ground volcanic tuff contrasts with any green — like the Black Mangrove and Saltbush found along the shore.
These Floreana Daisies add a splash of color as well. This subspecies of the Darwin (or cut-leaf) Daisy) grows as a small shrub in the poor soil along the main trail on Floreana. Interstingly, most of the flowers in the Galapagos are yellow as that is the preferred color of the Galapagos Carpenter Bee. This endemic pollinator fertilizes over 75% of the plant life in the archipelago.
This Great Blue Heron ignored us as it fished along the shore. He had the brightest colored legs of any Great Blue I have ever photographed!
Colorful Sally Lightfoot Crabs patrolled the rocky sections of the coast, as they do on all the islands. Only a few small Marine Iguanas will be seen on Floreana as heir preferred food source is not prevalent.
A short way inland on Floreana lies a huge, shallow brine lake. A few shorebirds picked along its edge as White-cheeked Pintail Ducks fed furiously, leaving a wake.
A resident group of Greater (Caribbean) Flamingos nests in the lake. Most of the time they remain at a distance. However, on this trip a small group came to the edge of the trail, ignoring the clicks of our cameras as they bathed and preened in the shallow lake edge.
At the sailors’ Post Office we looked for cards to hand deliver to addressees near our homes, before leaving cards of our own to be hand delivered. The post office was started hundreds of years ago by wayward sailors wanting to have messages taken back to their families. The tradition lives on in the tourists hands. No stamps required!
The Galapagos Flycatcher is regularly seen in the Palo Santo Trees around Post Office Bay. They have a sweet, mumbling song that always demands investigation. Like the rest of the Galapagos wildlife, they seem to have no fear of us.
Off the shore lies a volcanic remnant known as Devil’s Crown. Full of birdlife: Blue-footed and Nazca Boobies, Galapagos Penguins, frigatebirds, and a swirling colony of Audubon’s Shearwaters. The waters around Devil’s Crown offer some great snorkeling as well, though the currents here can be strong at times.
When the Audubon’s Shearwaters are not flying circles around the inside of Devil’s Crown, they may be found feeding on baitfish near the surface.1 Comments
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Your photo of the Great Blue Heron is interesting. There is a lot of white on the head and upper neck, similar to the all white of a Great Blue x Great White, known as a Wurdemann's. I do not see the rufous on the wing or the upper thigh, so I presume that it is a subspecies.
I have seen deep rose colored legs, very similar to your bird, on a Great White Heron at the height of breeding. For a very short time at the peak of breeding, the bare parts – legs and lores – on herons and egrets will turn an intense color.
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