The Florida Keys, just after leaving Miami
More of the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
My first afternoon in the Galapagos, on the beach with the sea lions
Sea lion resting on the lava rocks
My disposable underwater camera floated out of my bathing suit pocket, and this sea lion promptly took it and played with for a minute or two. Since it didn't play back or taste good, he let the camera go. Luckily it floated and I was able to retrieve it and take his picture.
Lava heron, non-breeding plumage
Lava heron in breeding plumage - lighter feathers and red legs
Lava heron
First Darwin finch - Warbler finch
Another finch
A Galapagos lizard, hanging out on a path marker. The blocks of colour on the lizards vary.
Galapagos marine iguana.
Darwin finch
Nazca booby. They make their nests on open ground, since they arrived to the Galapagos before any plants. They always lay two eggs. The elder sibling is usually born a few days earlier and pushes the younger one out of the nest, where it invariably dies as the mother watches on.
A Galapagos hawk, which I was lucky to catch just after its takeoff
An American oystercatcher, just about to sit on two eggs
Blue-footed boobies are common in the Galapagos. They are the world's best diving birds; females can start a dive from 100 feet in the air and plunge 25 feet into the water. Males (at right) have different eyes and tails that help them specialize diving into shallow water.
A pair of adult waved albatross. They are large birds with a wingspan of 7 feet. Other than breeding season, they live their lives at sea.
This is a juvenile waved albatross. Eventually it will lose its fuzzy feathers.
A waved albatross in flight
A Galapagos dove foraging in the bush
One of Darwin's finches, foraging on a coral beach. It's either a medium or large ground finch.
Sea lions, having a typical day on the beach
A Galapagos mockingbird. On this beach, they were fearless scavengers, examining our bags, bottles and scuba gear for anything of interest.
Sea turtle, maybe one meter long
Me, chilling on the beach with the sea lions.
Yellow warbler, common in the Galapagos
Another kind of Darwin finch, maybe Medium Ground Finch, judging by the beak
Post Office Bay, on Floreana, where you can post a letter without a stamp. It's been active for over 200 years. You need to trust someone else will pick it up and deliver it. I didn't find any letters close enough for me to deliver. Others in my group did.
Ruddy turnstone
Flamingoes, browsing through a pond
Flamingos live in shallow, inland lakes.
Two crabs, having a fight. This picture is actually larger than life.
More Darwin finches: Small Ground Finch
These tracks were made by sea turtles going between the ocean and their nests.
Sally Lightfoot crab
These crabs give themselves an acid "shampoo" to dissolve parts of their shells. Then they wiggle out, discard the old shell and hide for a few weeks while they grow bigger and form a new hard shell.
A well-camouflaged crab (dead center) in the lava
Sting ray, floating in the waves at the shoreline
More sting rays. I stepped on two when they were hidden in the wave-churned sand. Very squishy!
Lava gull, foraging at the shoreline
Lonesome George, the last of his subspecies, the Pinta Island Tortoise, subspecies Geochelone nigra abingdoni. Researchers are trying to mate him with two females of a related species. No success yet.
A wild tortoise on Sant Cruz
Me and a wild tortoise. You can tell it's an older one because its shell is very smooth. The males (like this one) can weigh over 300 pounds.
Barn owl at entrance of lava tube
Another cute sea lion, looking for love
Juvenile Great frigatebird
Land iguana
Male magnificent frigate birds puff up their gular (throat) sac to attract mates to their nesting spot. They also have a special trilling call.
Closeup of magnificent frigatebird and its gular sac
Juvenile magnificent frigatebird
These plants turn red to conserve energy and stop photosynthesis during the dry season.
Any shady spot is fine for this smaller iguana.
Galapagos penguins can live at the hot equator because cold currents come up from Antarctica. They are the only 'tropical' penguins in the world.
Galapagos penguins, sunning themselves
Penguins and crabs, sitting on the lava
Closeup on marine iguana. They feed on algae in the ocean and need to expel the salt afterwards, which they do by sneezing it out. The salt can blow back, forming the white crust on their heads.
Marine iguana, on a comfy bed of plants
We found this Galapagos hawk just as he was beginning to eat this baby sea lion. We don't know if he killed the sea lion or found it already dead.
Note that he is wearing bands on both legs.
As we got closer, he left the sea lion but didn't go far away. We weren't going to stop his meal.
A good size comparison of the hawk and sea lion on a coral beach.
This small female lizard crawled over my and my friend's bodies as we relaxed on the beach. She was looking for flies to eat. I helped her out by moving my arm or hand close to her when a fly landed on me. She got four flies that way.
My ship, the Cruz del Sur (Southern Cross)
A brown pelican at the landing zone on Bartolome Island.
Spatter cones (secondary volcanoes) on Bartolome
Climbing to the top of Bartolome
Isla Bartolome with Pinnacle Rock at right. Site of Russell Crowe's Master & Commander movie. Isla Santiago in background.
Looking down on Isla Bartolome at the spatter cones
Sea lion, resting in a cool puddle on the Bartolome shore.
A (male?) lizard, contrasting with the gravel on the beach
Great blue heron in a mangrove tree
Sea turtle
Two sea turtles, mating dance, fighting?
Shark!!! That white spot in the water at left, near the edge of the boat, is the tip of a white-tipped shark. Maybe four feet long. Luckily, they have no interest in humans. I saw bigger ones while snorkeling, but never got a picture.
A small ground finch, picking at the trunk of a prickly pear cactus tree trunk
The male small ground finch, at the same trunk
Cactus finch, in its proper ecological niche
Swallow-tailed gulls, the only nocturnal feeding gull in the world.
Closeup of land iguana
Two young sea lions, hanging out
Me, on South Plaza Island
Red-billed tropicbird hiding in the cliffs
The long tail of the red-billed tropicbird
Juvenile Galapagos hawk. They practice for a future of iguana hunting on sticks, sharpening the claws and beaks and practicing flying with a load.
A large land iguana
My fellow travellers at the airport on San Cristobal.
Buff-tailed Coronet Hummingbirds at a feeder in Bellavista Cloud Forest
Masked trogon, Bellavista Cloud Forest
Violet-tailed sylph hummingbird, Bellavista Cloud Forest
Buff-tailed Coronet and Violet-tailed sylph humminbirds in Bellavista Cloud Forest
Two Buff-tailed Coronet hummingbirds with one Speckled Brilliant at right
La Compania, Quito's best known church. The interior is nearly all gold-plated.
Quito, Ecuador's capital
At one of Ecuador's "false" equators. Many monuments were placed before the latest 'official' equator was fixed.
Me, practicing my blowgun technique. Yes, the hat is required.
Off the coast of Florida
A quick sunset stop and look at Manhattan, from LaGuardia, New York City.
Home, sweet, um, never mind. First snowstorm of the year began within 12 hours of me getting home.
