Genovesa never fails us - we had a superb day here today as usual! On this morning's easy walk behind the tiny white beach in Darwin Bay, we spotted the first courting, gular pouch inflated, frigate birds of the season. In fact this morning the great frigates, the swallow-tailed gulls and the red-footed boobies were all cooing and courting, displaying and nest building. The "Island of Birds" easily lived up to its name.
Red-footed boobies are the most numerous seabirds on Genovesa. It is estimated that 140,000 pairs of red-foots nest on this island. There are five main nesting colonies in Galapagos, of these, the smallest of the boobies found in this archipelago. These colonies are located on the peripheral islands as near as possible to their food source - flying fish and other pelagic (open ocean) fish species. As red-foots have to fly far to catch their prey they are unable to raise more than a single chick. And today, the chicks were hatching on Genovesa (you see a newly hatched chick below its parent in today's photo).
In addition to a walk among the feathered inhabitants of the island, we went snorkeling today, not once, but twice. Despite poor visibility there were some excellent sightings: a 12-foot manta ray that allowed some of us to swim beside it, friendly and playful sea lions, a hammerhead shark and a large sting ray. An almost constant stream of yellow-tailed surgeonfish flowed past below us in the murky water and we saw many brilliant Moorish idols and king angelfish.
