GALAPAGOS 2010: Floreana (Part 2)

Floreana’s ghost forest adorns the hills. Palo Santo tree drop their leaves during the Garua season (summer months) but become lush and green again during the rainy season (winter months). The Garua season offers a wonderful morning mist that burns off by breakfast time. It is the coolest time of year in the Galapagos rarely getting above 80°F.

Flamingos nest on this island, however, this year the numbers were way down. In fact, our naturalist had not seen any in the previous three months… he was surprised to see them on this trip. We watched them for a short while, then they took flight and disappeared over the horizon.

The dark area in the lower left of the image above is typically the flamingo nesting area. We usually see Black-necked Stilts and Whimbrel here as well, but the water level was way down. All we found on this trip was a Great Blue Heron.

The heron was at quite a distance when first spotted, but flew nearer to fish, posing for quite a while as it hunted.

A flock of Small Ground Finches flitted all about us as we watched the heron, offering many poses for our cameras. But it was time to move along the trail as there was still much to see!