Galapagos Islands
8 days cruising round the Galapagos Islands off the west coast of Ecuador with my dad. Apologies for the size of the gallery; the pictures tell the story of our trip and I just couldn't make it any smaller!
"Purrrllleeeaaasssee!"
"Oh go on then."
The little fella actually chased and grabbed the strap himself and had a good tug.
"Get it down yer neck quick Jack, one of them nasty frigates is coming."
"I'm trying, I'm trying, it's just too big."
"I'll have that if you don't mind."
Young waved albatross awaiting lunch.
Given this is taken at 16mm focal length, and the lizards are no more than 6 inches long, this gives an idea of how close one can approach the wildlife.
The racing booby (nazca) having a good stretch, with my dad in the background.
Coming in to land.
These amazing birds have a wingspan wider than I am tall, and are possibly the most graceful flyers, soaring high on extended wings and rarely flapping at all. They will roam up to 100km from the nest in search of food for their young.
Diomedea irrorataPhaethon aethereusRedbilled TropicbirdWaved Albatross
The noise was fantastic, and the guide showed us a highly entertaining picture he had been lucky enough to snap of a marine iguana in flight on the spray. I sat for a long while, but seems the iguanas may have wised up to that eventuality as they stayed away.
Begging like this stimulates the parent to regurgitate a delicious meal.
Less graceful on land.
And thoroughly ungainly on take-off and landing, having to launch themselves from cliffs on their way out and pray against stalling on their return.
This lava lizard was threatening me by bouncing up and down on his front legs.
Ideally, view this pic at full screen; even so, it gives only a diminished sense of the size of the sea lion colony inhabiting this beautiful beach. This is Isla Gardner, a short hop from our previous stop, and still part of Isla Española.
Like a dart, high speed fishing. They have protective covers that shield their eyes from the salt water, but life-long repeated impacts result in a high incidence of blindness.
Trying to get a decent pic without getting too close to the female sea lions with the bull keeping a watchful eye just out of shot. You can just make out our boat in the background.
A proud mum with the new addition to her family unit.
Sunset from The Beagle.
Sailing overnight brought us to Punta Pitt, one of the more hilly islands we visited. This grasshopper is about 3 inches long.
We saw these smooth-billed ani repeatedly throughout our trip, but they were one of the only timid creatures in the Galapagos (apart from the rat, which I entirely failed to capture), and this was the best image I was able to acquire.
A master poseur.
Detail of the foot of the red-footed booby. No one is quite sure why the two booby species developed such distinctively colourful feet. The red-footed is the smallest of the booby species.
HDR2 of a magnificent view.
The frigatebirds can be extremely aggressive.
It seems the other sea bird may have just made a catch and the frigate is attempting to force it to regurgitate.
Ganging up on the poor target. No significant damage was done, although it appeared that the frigates may have been successful in their gambit.
Jumping for joy. Apart from the social and "fun" factors, there is suggestion that the leaping can help to dislodge parasites.
A long time was spent waiting for him to strike, but herons have more patience than I. This was taken after our arrival at Isla Lobos.
Take-off down the left side first, then down the right.
The fishing action.
The final moment in detail. Sadly I was on the wrong side of the Panda (little outboard boat) and I caught someone's ear half way across the lens in that moment, hence the funny colour.
The sun drops very quickly at the equator.
These very playful little pups had been jumping and tumbling over each other through all the little pools and paused their frolicking for a moment to check out us checking them out.
Our next stop was Isla Santa Fé, towards the centre of the Galapagos, and one of the oldest at 4 million years. I love the highlights the sun gives round the wings and tail of this hawk.
A beautiful little yellow warbler.
Details.
The land iguanas listen out for the falling of fruit from the cactus trees. A piece of fruit had literally just fallen near us and this fellow perked up.
He knew exactly where the fruit had fallen.
And enjoyed it mightily.
Just finalising the shedding of his last skin.
