Season's Greetings from the Little Latitudes

As we complete our latest trip around the sun, its time to reflect on 2022 and look forward to another solar circuit in 2023.

There were two exciting developments in our part of the world in 2022 and both were newsworthy in one way or another.  Most importantly, Cathy took the plunge and joined the ranks of the retired.  She had spent much of the last 40 years or so in some form of computer science but on August 31 she said goodbye to her company.  Now almost every waking moment is spent honing her skills as a world-class knitter.  If you need a sweater or a wool cap made she will pump one out at warp speed.  My personal favorite is her Fair Isle knitting style.  I only wish it was cold enough here more than 2 days a year for a wool cap because I would certainly like one in that style.  She also oversaw the torturously long effort to remodel her kitchen.  Its taken more than 3 months to complete and is still not finished.  Cathy served as general contractor for this effort.  She’s not old enough yet for Social Security so she might want to consider being a kitchen remodeling manager as a retirement job.

The other exciting news in 2022 was the unwanted arrival of Hurricane Ian who roared ashore just south of Sarasota on September 28.  Peak winds here were clocked at 127 miles per hour. We suffered no property damage other than a couple broken palm fronds, We were among the luckiest of people in Ian’s path.  Too many suffered far more.

Unwanted and unwelcome Hurricane Ian roared ashore about 40 miles south of Sarasota as a Category 4 monster on September 28, 2022.  Good riddance

Cathy’s rambunctious grandson Channing spent almost every other weekend with us.  We spent a lot of time in the pool where he continues to excel as a swimmer.  At 5 ½ years old we are making plans to build houses for the imaginary 9 families of muskrats he is convinced live in our pool.  We spend a lot of time watching jets flying over and Channing remains fascinated by their contrails. His ability to identify birds by their voice is improving but his wildlife specialty has become rescuing frogs, turtles, and millipedes that fall into the pool.

 

One of several juvenile Red-necked Sliders that Channing rescued from our pool this summer

Cathy and I made three major trips together this year beginning with the Galapagos Islands.  The birds, the marine mammals, and the scenery were almost lifted from an Evolution textbook and it was a huge rush to be exploring the same waters and islands that Charles Darwin explored aboard the HMS Beagle.  

The course followed by the Bedbug infested Golandrina I among the islands of the Galapagos

Sadly for us, the ship we were on, the Golandrina I, was not the least bit comfortable. A Galapagos Sea Lion that hopped aboard and joined us for dinner one night, and a bed filled with bedbugs were the two most memorable onboard experiences. On our return from the islands to Guayaquil, Ecuador, Craig misinterpreted the COVID rules and discovered when we checked in for our flight to Miami that we needed a negative COVID test before we could depart Ecuador. Eventually everything worked out and we left Guayaquil 13 hours late.

 

Even in your wildest dreams the Golandrina I was not and is not a luxury Galapagos yacht, although the bedbugs were memorable

Moose are regular visitor's to my daughters Wasilla, Alaska, yard.

We traveled to Alaska and Montana (on Alaska Airlines of course) in late July and early August.  We spent time with my daughter and her family near Wasilla (without once again seeing Caribou Barbie Palin), then made a day trip to Nome where we found 22 Musk Ox and $7.00 a gallon gas! Our dinner restaurant, the Bering Sea Cafe where we paid $5.00 for a ping pong ball sized baked potato, burned down the next month when the remnants of a typhoon ripped through west coastal Alaska.  Luckily none of the great people working at the Bering Sea were harmed in any way. 

Musk ox are the highlight of any trip to Nome.  Seeing 22 of them makes it even more special.

From Nome we flew to Kalispell, Montana, and spent a week with our Sarasota neighbors in a house owned by Bob Barker.  We spent one day in Glacier National Park where a Grizzly Bear sauntering down the highway like he owns it (he does) and a flock of Bighorn Sheep at Logan Pass were the wildlife highlights.

Bighorn Sheep at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, August 2022

On Halloween we flew to New Orleans to celebrate my latest birthday.  We stayed at the Westin Hotel by the river, ate breakfast one morning at Mother’s Restaurant, dinner one night at Deanie’s Seafood, and lunch and dinner another time at the Crescent City Brewing Company.  Once again we are convinced that it should be a requirement of US citizenship to travel once every 4 years to New Orleans just to eat Cajun food.

 

It's worth standing in line for hours for the best soul food breakfast in New Orleans at Mother's Restaurant

Craig made a couple solo trips to Alaska including a marathon “See-Alaska” jaunt in late May and early June that took him to Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, and Kotzebue before landing in Barrow for the fifth time.  There he conducted the Barrow Breeding Bird Survey and saw an Arctic Fox, two curious Caribou, and a Polar Bear that was foraging on a recently harvested Bowhead Whale.

There are two hotels in Barrow but my favorite, just a stones throw from the airport is the King Eider Inn.  Any hotel named after a way cool duck has to be a place for wildlife enthusiasts to stay while there
 

 

The runway at Ralph Wein Memorial Airport in Kotzebue Alaska cuts through the middle of a large Estuarine Emergent wetland where flushing flocks of Long-tailed Ducks is a common occurrence each time a plane arrives!

This rather large Polar Bear was dining on the leftovers of a recently harvested Bowhead Whale on the Arctic Ocean ice at Barrow in June.  Photo by Sarah Alli Brotherton Guthrie of Barrow. 

This Caribou was found daily along the route of the Barrow Breeding Bird Survey at Barrow.

Plans for 2023 depend on whether our respective hearts continue pumping!  Too many friends from childhood passed away in 2022 which is making both of us more aware of our own impending mortality. 

Before that happens we have a trip planned in mid-January to Antarctica with stops along the way in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and the Falkland Islands.  Our original reservation was for a balcony stateroom, but Norwegian did some stateroom rate changes and we ended up with an aft-facing penthouse (complete with a personal butler) for less than we originally were paying for a balcony!

Our most favorite Norwegian Cruise Line ship "The Star" will be taking us to Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands. and Antarctica in January.

This will be Cathy’s fifth time in South America, her second time south of the Equator, and Craig’s 6^th time in Argentina.  Antarctica will also be Craig’s 7^th and final continent.  

Sixteen days aboard the Norwegian Jewel from Honolulu to Skagway, Alaska, to Vancouver, British Columbia, should be a relaxing way to maybe pick up one new seabird for my life list

Thanks to an email from a cruise broker we found an astonishingly cheap 16-day cruise from Honolulu to southeast Alaska to Vancouver British Columbia in April and early May.  When we called Norwegian Cruise Line to see if the offer was legitimate we learned that Norwegian’s price was even cheaper than the cruise broker.  So in mid-April,  Alaska Airlines will plunk us down in Honolulu and from there we will begin our watery trek north before going south.

Craig’s only other Alaska trip in 2023 will be a return to Barrow for another breeding bird survey, and to conduct a new breeding bird survey route on the Nome to Teller Highway. With luck there will be a Polar Bear on the Barrow route this year, and maybe a Wolverine on the road to Teller.

Willow Ptarmigan, the State Bird of Alaska, are surprisingly common and conspicuous along the Nome to Teller Highway (which is a dirt road!)

The Alaska Native village of Teller, 80 miles northwest of Nome, is one of the most picturesque locales I have seen anywhere in Alaska

As with every year we hope the holiday season finds you happy, healthy, and looking forward to the New Year.  Its curious how as children it seemed to take forever to get from one Christmas to another.  Now it seems like it was just last month we were wishing you Happy Holidays from beneath a Florida palm tree.

Duck Hunting in North Dakota

 

Forty-two (42) years ago today, October 7, 1980, the legal time to begin duck hunting on Sibley Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Kidder County, North Dakota was 7:15 a.m. By 7:00 a.m. my Chesapeake Bay Retriever and I had our decoys spread out by a makeshift blind on the northeast shore of the lake. We watched ducks fly past us until 7:15 when a pair of drake American Wigeon flew toward the decoys. Two shots from my .870 Wingmaster 12 gauge and Chester was in the water retrieving them

No sooner did he return with both ducks when two more drake Wigeons set their wings to land. Two more shots and Chester was in the water retrieving. The bag limit that year was 5 birds and I decided to wait for a drake Mallard to be my fifth and final duck. However a drake Redhead flew in and I couldn’t resist. After Chester retrieved the Redhead I looked at my watch. It was 7:27. We had limited out in 12 minutes.

Next we drove to the south end of the lake where a huge flock of Snow Geese was known to roost. Laying under two large white sheets we waited for the geese to return. When they did I stood up and fired. Three Snow Geese fell with the first shot and a fourth fell with the second. With one shell left I focused on a dark goose I assumed was a Canada and fired. Chester jumped in the water and returned with a Black Brant, a sea goose of the Pacific Coast and the only one I ever saw in North Dakota. It was 8:30 and we were limited out on geese.

From Sibley Lake back to Jamestown took about 1 hour 15 minutes. We followed back roads, stopping at a patch of native prairie where I quickly dispatched a limit of 3 Sharp-tailed Grouse and later we picked up a limit of Gray Partridge simply by encountering flocks along the road.

Returning home I dropped off my dog and the bounty of birds I would later clean. Then proceeded to my office where I was sitting at my desk by 12 noon less than 5 hours after the first shot of the day

There were other great hunting days in North Dakota that kept my dog very happy through 1982. Then the world came crashing down in 1983 and I no longer had a place to keep my dog. He was returned to my parents farm in Wisconsin where he lived two more years. With him gone I haven’t picked up a gun, other than to give away those I owned, since November 1982.

The best part of living in North Dakota was hunting season each fall. Had things not worked out the way they did I would probably still be living there and this morning I would be shivering in chest waders waiting for the first duck of the day to fly into my decoy spread

This Was Not the Voyage of the Beagle to the Galapagos

 

Galapagos

March 18 – 25, 2022

The original plan for early 2022 was a cruise aboard Norwegian Cruise Line from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Antarctica with a few intermediate stops. The cruise was paid in full and so were the non-refundable Business Class tickets on American Airlines from Sarasota to Buenos Aires. At the last minute, COVID-19 headed its ugly rear just two weeks before departure and Norwegian cancelled the cruise. Those funds were refunded but not the money paid to American Airlines. With more than $3,000 in flight credits available we looked for an alternative destination.

 

Doing a Google search on the words “Cheap Galapagos cruises” we were directed to the Golandrina 1, a 72 foot “yacht” that sleeps sixteen passengers. Many Galapagos cruises were in the $700 to $1000 per day per person range. The Golandrina was $326 per person per day. We booked the boat, then bought tickets to Guayaquil, Ecuador on American Airlines and Guayaquil to Baltra island in the Galapagos on LATAM Airlines and waited anxiously for departure day.

 

The Cruise

 

When Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos for his 5-week sojourn he found an evolving environment that was as it had been since the formation of the islands by volcanic activity. With very few exceptions the islands are today as they were when Darwin sailed among them.

 

Our Galapagos adventure began on March 18, 2022, when we landed at Baltra Island aboard a LATAM Airlines Airbus 319 neo after a 90-minute flight from hot and steamy Guayaquil. We quickly discovered that although this was the “wet” season there is absolutely nothing wet about the Galapagos. Daily temperatures were in the low 90s with humidity at a corresponding number. If the Christians are correct and there is a hell, its going to be on the islands of the Galapagos!

 

From the airport we were transported in a bus to the yacht terminal where we boarded the dilapidated Golandrina 1 (more on this “luxury” yacht later). As we pulled out of the harbor we were treated to a very flavorful lunch as the captain led us to Bachas Beach on the north coast of Santa Cruz Island. Spending several hours here we departed overnight for the 7-hour crossing to Genovesa Island.

 

Day 2 was spent exploring Genovesa and adjoining Darwin Bay. Day 3 began on Bartolome with the afternoon on Santiago Island. Day 4 found us exploring a large maternity area for Galapagos Sea Lions on South Plazas Island, then later we explored Santa Fe Island. Day 5 was on and around San Cristobal with an afternoon excursion on a massively rocky trail on Lobos Island. We greeted sunrise on Day 6 in a bay on Espanola Island. Day 7 began on Floreana Island followed by a 4-hour crossing to Puerto Aroyo on Santa Cruz Island where we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station. Day 8 began with a short excursion to North Seymour Island followed by a return to the yacht harbor by 7:30 a.m. and a transfer to the Baltra airport by 8:30 a.m.

 

The “Yacht”

 

The Golandrina 1 was not a luxury yacht by any stretch of the imagination! Each “stateroom” was about 48 to 50 square feet with bunk beds. There was no room to turn around let alone store luggage! The en suite bathroom contained a shower that operated like a garden hose not like an actual shower. We paid extra for a “superior” cabin, and we are still trying to figure out what was superior about the cabin! Adding insult to misery there was no air conditioning the first two days and nights. Then when it was finally fixed the captain controlled the in-room air conditioning and turned it on and more often off at his discretion.

 

The Golandrina 1

  

General Observations and Suggestions

 

Any biologist worth his or her salt needs to visit the Galapagos where evolution is not a theory but an ongoing conspicuous process. Visiting the islands can be blindingly expensive if you choose a high-end boat operated by a high-end company. You can easily spend $1000 per person per day but all the companies have similar itineraries. Thus, if you are rich and want to see as many endemics as possible, go with a Lindblad Explorer or National Geographic group and pay excessively for comfort. However, you will see the same species as if you went aboard the Golandrina 1 and were subjected to forty-eight square feet of space, half of which was occupied by bunk beds.

 

The Golandrina would be a perfect boat to charter if you can get fifteen participants to cover the cost of one trip leader. Birdwatchers and ornithologists can put up with a lot and come away smiling and they certainly would on this boat and for a fraction of the cost of other boats.

 

I have already been asked if I would do the trip again. Yes and no. I would go back but not until after the COVID-19 nonsense has settled down. In the Guayaquil airport 4 hours before our departure, we were informed that the US government (CDC) requires a negative COVID test before entering the United States. The only lab in the airport that can give the test did not open until 30 minutes after our flight left so we rebooked for a middle of the night flight, got our negative test results, and waited endlessly for the time to arrive when we could escape and return home. The irony of the CDC requirement about a test is that we were traveling to Florida which has no restrictions on anything related to COVID. To make matters more annoying, nobody in Customs or Immigration asked to see the lab test results when we arrived in Miami!

 

When traveling to the islands is sane again, I will go back. Until then there are other places to visit.

 

The Birds

 

The Galapagos bird list includes 154 species of which twenty-nine species are endemic to the islands. My hard-fought (and hard-sweated) list includes 63 species seen of which 28 were new to my world list and among them were 25 endemic species. The Galapagos Species Checklist project is an excellent source of information on all wildlife occurring in the Galapagos. https://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/datazone/checklist

 

White-cheeked Pintail (Endemic subspecies) - White-cheeked pintail was regular whenever we found brackish wetlands.

 

American Flamingo - We watched a pair in a brackish wetland near the north shore of Santa Cruz Island. Our naturalist/guide said they are widely distributed throughout the Galapagos wherever brackish wetlands occur.

 

Galapagos Dove (Endemic species) - My first Galapagos bird. A pair greeted us as we walked to the terminal on Baltra after exiting the LATAM flight from Guayaquil. As we waited for other travelers to arrive, we watched more of them under the shade of the waiting area at the airport. Throughout the trip we found Galapagos Dove on every island visited.

 

Smooth-billed Ani - An introduced species in the Galapagos. Our first one was on Santa Cruz Island. We found a displaying pair on Floreana.

 

Dark-billed Cuckoo - One bird on Isla Santiago was the only one seen during the trip. I was surprised by this being the only one observed.

 

Black-necked Stilt - Regular wherever brackish wetlands occurred.

 

Semipalmated Plover - A single bird foraging on the edge of a brackish wetland on Santa Cruz Island was the only one observed.

 

Whimbrel - One vociferous individual foraging on the edge of a brackish wetland on Santa Cruz Island and three in similar habitat on Floreana.

 

Ruddy Turnstone - The standard rocky shoreline bird. I think I have seen Ruddy Turnstone in every country from Mexico south to southern Argentina except for Bolivia and Paraguay that do not have rocky ocean shores.

 

Surfbird – I was surprised to find one near Prince Phillip’s Steps on Genovesa.

 

Least Sandpiper – The only peep identified during the entire trip. Each individual observed was foraging along the shore of brackish wetlands.

 

Red-necked Phalarope - Astonishingly common in large rafts over open ocean water everywhere we traveled during daylight hours. The minimal estimate was at least 20,000 of them seen throughout the trip. As each flock erupted from the surface of the ocean, I asked myself if I would be counting any of them at Barrow, Alaska, when I do my bird censuses there in June.

 

Red Phalarope – Not as numerous as Red-necked Phalarope but still common over deep waters we traversed during daylight hours. Like with Red-necked Phalarope I wonder how many of the individuals I saw in the Galapagos will be on my bird census route at Barrow, Alaska, in a few months.

 

Wandering Tattler – Reported by our naturalist/guide to be regular in winter, we saw three individuals on three islands.

 

Lesser Yellowlegs – I was surprised to find only one bird during the entire trip.

 

Pomarine Jaeger – The book on the birds of the Galapagos mentions the paucity of records from the Galapagos and found that unusual because the islands are near the principal wintering area for this species offshore from South America. I found one at sea while underway toward San Cristobal Island.

 

Swallow-tailed Gull – The sea cliffs of Genovesa island were littered with numerous breeding pairs of this stunningly beautiful gull. We encountered them at several locations in the Galapagos and always where there were steep cliffs. Their nesting habitat use seems similar to Black-legged Kittiwake in the northern hemisphere. I had seen this species previously along the shore of Ecuador near Mantes but that was a single individual. Here in the Galapagos, we saw several thousand of them. I think only breeding plumaged Ross’s Gulls are more beautiful than Swallow-tailed Gull.

 

Franklin's Gull – Three birds at sea near Espanola Island. Franklin’s gull spends the winter in vast numbers along the shore of Peru and Chile. The book says they are regular migrants in the Galapagos. It was strange looking at these birds over open ocean knowing that in two months they will be nesting on prairie wetlands in the Dakotas and Minnesota.

 

Lava Gull (Endemic species) – Not as numerous as Swallow-tailed Gull but seen regularly throughout the islands. Most individuals were found in rocky shoreline habitat.

 

Brown Noddy (Endemic subspecies) – Regularly observed over open water throughout the Galapagos.

 

Red-billed Tropicbird – Surprisingly numerous as a nesting bird especially on Genovesa Island. We found one nest with a nearly fledged young bird on a flat area on the top of the island. All others were along the steep cliff faces.

 

Galapagos Penguin (Endemic species) – The five birds we found on Isla Bartolome were the only penguins seen on the trip. Their numbers fluctuate widely based on the availability of prey items; numbers are knocked back during El Nino years. This penguin looks similar to the more abundant and widespread Magellanic Penguin that was no doubt the Galapagos Penguin’s ancestral species.

 

Waved Albatross – The entire world population of Waved Albatross (about 12,000 pairs) nests on Espanola Island. After fledging the young birds spend about 5 years over open ocean before returning to the island to nest. That return begins in late March with nesting underway between May and January. There were no birds on the nesting area when we visited it. I found one individual at sea (likely a juvenile) near North Seymour Island and another during the run from Floreana to Santa Cruz Island.

 

Elliot’s Storm-Petrel – Numerous and widely distributed at sea throughout the Galapagos, even found foraging in the harbor at Puerto Aroyo on Santa Cruz.

 

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel – Two individuals over deep water between Santa Fe and San Cristobal Islands were the only individuals observed. I always have considered this an Atlantic Ocean bird so finding one on the Pacific was a treat.

 

Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel – Regular and widespread at sea throughout the Galapagos. We visited a nesting colony on Genovesa Island that supports at least 5,000 breeding pairs. We watched the spectacle of them displaying over land and many people on the trip asked if they were some species of swallow.

 

[Unknown Storm-Petrel] – On March 20, 2022, I saw a storm-petrel from shore on Bartolome Island that resembled a Ringed Strom-Petrel much more than a White-faced Storm-Petrel. I have seen Ringed offshore from Peru and Chile, and White-faced in several locations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Geography suggests this was a Ringed, but there are no records of the species in the Galapagos. There are records of White-faced from the islands, but it seems strange to have this species in the Pacific. I wish I could have had a better and longer look but I was not that lucky. It knows what species it is even though I never will.

 

Galapagos Petrel – Depending on which taxonomist you listen to, this is either a full species separate from Dark-rumped Petrel in Hawaii, or the Hawaii form is a subspecies of Galapagos Petrel. I have seen the Hawaii form at sea offshore from Kauai and it appears indistinguishable from the one individual I found at sea between Floreana and Santa Cruz. If the two forms are split, then I have another arm-chair life bird waiting to be elevated to countable status.

 

Galapagos Shearwater – Formerly considered a subspecies of the widely-distributed Audubon’s Shearwater, Galapagos Shearwater occurs in exceptionally large numbers at sea and in harbors around every island. It is safe to say that if you go to the Galapagos Islands and do not see this shearwater then you never left your cabin or did you look at the ocean!

 

Magnificent Frigatebird – Widely distributed throughout the Galapagos.

 

Great Frigatebird – Slightly more numerous than the Magnificent Frigatebird. On Genovesa Island we walked among nesting Great Frigatebirds as close as two feet from us. There it was a major treat watching males inflate their bright red “balloon” as they tried to attract a mate.

 

Nazca Booby – How strange is it to be walking down a trail on Genovesa Island and have a juvenile Nazca Booby reach out and peck your foot with the tip of its bill? This, the largest booby in the Galapagos, is widely distributed as a nesting species occurring on every island we visited.

 

Blue-footed Booby – The quintessential Galapagos bird. We were able to see males trying to attract a female by “dancing” their blue feet while whistling. It was a comical sight. Every t shirt shop in Puerto Aroyo and in the Baltra airport has t shirts with two blue feet on the front and the words “I Love Boobies – Galapagos” written across the front. I was tempted to buy a shirt but figured someone in the United States would be offended and sue me for harassment.

 

Red-footed Booby – The smallest of the boobies in the Galapagos we found numerous active nests, with adults incubating eggs, on Genovesa Island. Red-footed Booby was also regularly encountered at sea. To avoid competition with the larger Nazca and Blue-footed Boobies, the Red-footed spends most of its foraging time far from shore over deeper waters than the other boobies prefer to forage in.

 

Flightless Cormorant (Endemic species) – I was surprised beyond imagination to find a single bird perched on a rocky shoreline of Santa Cruz Island. The book on Galapagos birds says that this unique cormorant occurs only on Fernandina and Isabella islands, neither of which we visited. But it is difficult if not impossible to misidentify a cormorant with wings one-third the length of any other cormorant. This is especially true in an area that has only one cormorant species. Regardless of the explanation this was a real treat to see especially since we were not traveling to the two islands where it is known to occur.

 

Brown Pelican – Regularly seen in the near-shore environment throughout the islands. Never over deep open water.

 

Great Blue Heron – Seen regularly and always as single individuals on several islands.

 

Cattle Egret – We saw flocks of up to ten individuals in Puerto Aroyo as we walked from the public dock to the Charles Darwin Research Center and return. This was the only location we found this species in the islands.

 

Striated (Lava) Heron (Endemic subspecies) – The distinctly marked and obvious “Lava Heron” subspecies was found along the rocky shore of at least five islands between Santa Cruz and Espanola. We only saw solitary birds.

 

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Endemic subspecies) – We observed an adult incubating eggs in a nest built in a crevice adjacent to the Prince Phillip Stairs on Genovesa

 

Galapagos Hawk (Endemic species). My first one was seen soaring with two Magnificent Frigatebirds on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island. Later we found other solitary birds on South Plaza, Santa Fe, San Cristobal, Espanola and Floreana. We were greeted by one perched above a group of Galapagos Sea Lions at the landing location on Espanola.

 

Brujo Flycatcher (Endemic species) – Brujo Flycatcher was recently split from the widely-distributed Vermillion Flycatcher. Before the split it was known by some taxonomists as “Galapagos Vermillion Flycatcher.”   Despite being distributed across most of the islands we found only a solitary bird on San Cristobal Island.

 

Galapagos Flycatcher (Endemic species) – A pair that appeared to contain an enthusiastically displaying male and a female who was looking for better options, was found in some Palo Santo trees on Bartolome. Galapagos Flycatcher occurs on all islands except Darwin, Genovesa, and Wolf. Despite its wide distribution we only encountered this single pair on one island. They are reported to be “common” in lowlands of all the islands, but you cannot prove that by me.

 

Galapagos Martin (Endemic species) – We found one individual near the peak of the “Pinnacle” on Bartolome. Another was heard and seen on San Cristobal.

 

Barn Swallow – Is there any place in the western hemisphere that this species does not occur? We found three obvious migrants on Espanola Island and a single bird flying over open water of nearby Gardner Bay. I have seen Barn Swallow as far south as Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego in Argentina. Seeing these four birds made me wonder where they had spent the winter and more importantly on the side of whose house in the United States or Canada they will be nesting in a few weeks.

 

Galapagos Mockingbird (Endemic species) – Common, conspicuous, and noisily obvious like its Northern Mockingbird cousin. The subspecies bauri was found on Genovesa. Subspecies barringtoni was found on Santa Fe. Subspecies parvulus was found on Santa Cruz and Baltra. Subspecies personatus was found on Santiago. Each subspecies was distinctly plumaged, and each had conspicuously different call notes and different songs (especially their cadence). With advances in molecular genetics applied to avian taxonomy I would not be surprised if some time soon each subspecies in the Galapagos was elevated to species status.

 

Española Mockingbird (Endemic species) – Obnoxiously bold and conspicuous on Espanola from the moment we came ashore at both Suarez Point and the beach at Gardner Bay. Although National Park regulations forbid feeding wildlife its ok to kill flies and feed them to the Espanola Mockingbirds who eagerly await the sound of the next slap on human skin.

 

San Cristobal Mockingbird (Endemic species) – One individual near the shore on Lobos Island near San Cristobal was the only one we found.

 

Yellow Warbler (Endemic subspecies) – A conspicuous bird in habitats adjacent to the ocean especially in mangroves on Floreana. Although the behavior of this subspecies is similar to the more widely distributed subspecies in North America and the West Indies, its song is distinctly different. It retains the “sweet, sweet, I’m so sweet” song but with a markedly different cadence. Given its geographic isolation I am surprised the Yellow Warbler in the Galapagos has not already been elevated to species status.

 

DARWIN’S FAMOUS FINCHES

 

Green Warbler-Finch (Endemic species) – Conspicuous on both Santiago and Santa Cruz. When Charles Darwin collected one in 1835, he thought it was a species of wren. Uncle Chuck made a big mistake in his identification.

 

Gray Warbler-Finch (Endemic species) – We found the subspecies mentalis on Genovesa, bifasciata on Santa Fé, cinerascens on Española, luteola on San Cristóbal, and ridgwayi on Floreana. Gray Warbler-Finch is found mostly in the shrubland and dry forest of smaller drier islands. Each subspecies has plumage coloration suitable for their habitat.

 

Vegetarian Finch (Endemic species) – A conspicuous finch in the lowlands of Santiago, San Cristobal, Santa Cruz, and Floreana.

 

Woodpecker Finch (Endemic species) – We found this finch commonly on Santa Cruz, Santiago, and San Cristobal. Unique among passerines, the Woodpecker Finch has adapted to be able to use “tools” like small sticks with which they extract insects and insect larvae from the bark of trees. Sadly, we did not witness this behavior.

 

Large Tree-Finch (Endemic species) – The largest and heaviest of Darwin’s finches, we found this species on Santa Fe, Santiago, San Cristobal and Floreana.

 

Medium Tree-Finch (Endemic species) – Restricted to Floreana Island where we saw a male displaying for a female. Given all the energy he exerted, I hope the male got lucky.

 

Small Tree-Finch (Endemic species) – This, the smallest of Darwin’s tree finches, was found regularly on Santa Cruz, Santiago, San Cristobal, Floreana, Baltra, and Santa Fe.

 

Small Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – Very common in dry transitional zones of which there is an abundance in the Galapagos. We found this species on every island visited except Genovesa where it does not naturally occur.

 

Large Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – The massive and conspicuous bill is a certain field mark for identifying this common species. We found it on all islands visited except San Cristobal and Espanola

 

Genovesa Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – Recently split from the Sharp-beaked Ground-Finch, this species is endemic to Genovesa where it is conspicuous and fairly common.

 

Sharp-beaked Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – We found two individuals on Santiago. We were lucky to find them.

 

Common Cactus-Finch (Endemic species) – Also known as “Small Cactus-Finch” this species is widely distributed and common on most islands except Genovesa and Espanola. On Floreana we watched an adult tear apart the flower of an Opuntia cactus and feed it to a recently fledged juvenile that was begging vigorously to be fed.

 

Medium Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – Widely distributed on all the islands we visited except for Genovesa.

 

Española Ground-Finch (Endemic species) – Found within seconds of landing on Espanola Island where it was surprisingly common in the lower elevations of the island.

 

Genovesa Cactus-Finch (Endemic species) – Common and conspicuous in the scrubby vegetation we visited on Genovesa.

 

Major misses from the bird list that we did NOT see include:

 

Galapagos Rail – it occurs on several islands visited but only sparingly and in higher elevation wet meadow habitat. We did not visit its habitat on this trip

 

Floreana Mockingbird – Perhaps 150 individuals remain on two small islets offshore from Floreana Island. Access to both islets is highly restricted and there are severe penalties if you are on the islets without a permit.

 

Mangrove Finch – Perhaps 150 individuals remain in a few areas of mangrove forest on the west coast of Isabella Island. Our trip did not take us to Isabella

 

Vampire Ground Finch – This bizarrely named species is restricted to Darwin and Wolf islands in the far northwest corner of the Galapagos. About the only boats that visit the range of this species are scuba diving boats and we were not on a dive boat. This bird is most famous for its unusual diet. When alternative sources are scarce the vampire finch occasionally feeds by drinking the blood of other birds, chiefly the Nazca and blue-footed boobies, pecking at their skin with their sharp beaks until blood is drawn. Curiously, the boobies do not offer much resistance against this. It has been theorized that this behavior evolved from the pecking behavior the finch used to clean parasites from the plumage of the booby. The finches also feed on eggs, stealing them just after they are laid and rolling them (by pushing with their legs and using their beak as a pivot) into rocks until they break.

 

The Mammals

 

I am not sure of the correct taxonomic order of the mammals we observed.

 

Galapagos Sea Lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) – Some taxonomists consider this a subspecies of the California Sea Lion. The only excuse for not seeing a Galapagos Sea Lion in the islands is that you had your eyes closed the entire time you were among the islands. One evening at dinner we looked up to see a Sea Lion perched at the top of the stairs leading to the dining area. When it was chased away it went up another flight of stairs and entered our cabin. Looking around it decided it did not like what it saw and heaved itself overboard. On Bartolome as I waited at the landing area for the rest of the group a Sea Lion climbed up the steps to a flat area, then turned to climb more toward me. Seeing me it stopped. I moved over on the steps and told it I was not a danger. The Sea Lion then sneezed and laid down on the steps for a nap.

 

Galapagos Fur Seal (Arctocephalaus galapagensis) – The three individuals we saw hauled out on the rocks at Genovesa were the only fur seals of the trip.

 

Bryde’s Whale (Balaenoptera brydei) – About 20 minutes after departing Floreana for Santa Cruz, one of the crew members yelled “Ballena!!  Off the port side of the ship were two medium sized whales traveling at an angle toward the bow of the boat. Based on field characteristics observed including two blow holes and the smaller size I concluded this was Bryde’s Whale. Ironically, this species is named after a Norwegian man who established a whaling station in South Africa. This was a lifer mammal.

 

The Reptiles

 

I am not sure of the correct taxonomic order of the reptiles observed.

 

Green (Sea) Turtle (Chelonia mydas ssp. agassizi) – Common and conspicuous throughout the islands. The subspecies occurring in the Galapagos is sometimes called the “Black Turtle.”  Whether it is a valid species is anyone’s guess.

 

Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) Two of these enormous sea turtles were seen near shore on San Cristobal Island. This was a lifer and the last of the world’s sea turtles for me.

 

Marine Iguana (Ambryrhynchus cristatus) – One of the classic reptiles to see in the Galapagos, this is the only iguana in the world that relies on marine environments and marine algae for its survival. We saw the subspecies hassi on Santa Cruz, mertensi on San Crisbotal and Santiago, nanus on Genovesa and venustissimus on Espanola.

 

Land Iguana (Conolophus sublirstatus) - Common and conspicuous on most large islands including several that enjoyed sunbathing on the road to the yacht basin on Baltra.

 

Santa Fe Land Iguana (Conolophus pallidus) – Sparsely distributed on Santa Fe.

 

Galapagos Lava Lizard (Microlophus albemertensis) – Common and conspicuous on South Plaza, Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, and Santiago.

 

Espanola Lava Lizard (Microlophus delanonsis) – Easily found on Espanola.

 

Floreana Lava Lizard (Microlophus hobellii) – We found two on Floreana.

 

San Cristobal Lava Lizard (Microlophus bivattatus) – Restricted to San Cristobal where it is easy to find.

 

Galapagos Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllodactylus galapogensis) – Fairly common on Santa Cruz, Santiago, and Bartolome.

 

Baur’s Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllrdactylus bauri) – Restricted to Espanola

 

Santa Fe Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllrdactylus barringtonensis) – Restricted to Santa Fe.

 

Tuberculated Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllrdactlus tuberculosus) – Restricted to San Cristobal.

 

Major misses:

 

Galapagos (or Giant) Tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus) – We did not explore any areas that were within the range of this iconic Galapagos species. We visited a captive breeding facility at the Charles Darwin Research Center on Santa Cruz where we saw many of them, but these were not wild animals. After observing numerous adults at the breeding center, I am now convinced that Steven Spielberg used the head and neck of the Giant Tortoise as the model for E.T. the extraterrestrial.

 

 Completed on March 29, 2022, from field notes taken in the Galapagos.