Early in the morning as we arrived at the caldera of Genovesa Island we encountered large numbers of birds flying around and then, in the distance, a whale’s spout was observed. As we looked carefully it was identified as a Bryde’s whale. After breakfast we started our day with a couple of walks that took us towards different colonies of sea birds such as Nazca boobies, red-footed boobies, great frigatebirds, and swallow-tailed gulls.
As we explored a bit more we were surprised by the presence of a few short-eared owls. This species of owl is the top predator on this island and it showed us its hunting skills by catching a storm petrel in front of us. Another one tried to get a small Galapagos marine iguana with no success as the iguana escaped into a fissure.
One of the greatest things to observe were some male great frigatebirds with their bright red gular pouches extended. The males inflate their pouches and show them off to look more attractive to females. February is just the beginning of the mating season for great frigatebirds and until July we will find these males displaying their mating calls and pouches.
We ended our journey with a great sunset and the skies full of birds and their calls.
