A DREAM COME TRUE. 1. GALAPAGOS BEACHES
In many many years I have dreamt of visiting the Galapagos islands and watching
all those wonderfully tame birds and reptiles. I had devoured Bryan Nelson's
book on his year of seabird studies camping on Genovesa, as well as the Grants'
masterful and lucid 'The beak of the finch', about their long-term evolutionary
studies on the finches of Daphne Major. I have, moreover, myself taught
evolution at our university for many years, and also there the Galapagos
islands regularly play a role.
Five years ago I decided that I'd take Riet to the Galapagos one day and now in
2006 it was finally going to happen. We are booked with Naturetrek's two weeks
cruise on the schooner Cachalote I. The group consists of 14 people, with us
two the only foreigners, and with Cliff Waller as the experienced leader. We
flew from London via Miami to Quito and arrived safely, although our luggage
did not; in fact it did not catch up with us until 4 days later, when a panga
(Zodiac) full of bags and suitcases appeared suddenly in the harbour at St
Cristobal, an extremely welcome sight! In the meantime we had flown to Baltra,
all bought sun-hats at the airport there and boarded our most comfortable 'home
away from home' the Cachalote. Here we also met our most knowledgeable local
guide Gabriel, who most litterally 'kept us on the right path'---he noticed
every little deviation from the black-and-white poles of the official paths and
called us back at once..
That first afternoon, hot and sunny like most days here, we experienced our
first 'wet landing': the pangas deposited us on a nice sandy beach on S. Cruz
Island, Los Bachos. Ninetythree percent of the Galapagos is national park, and
the areas open to the public are strictly prescribed and demarcated. In
addition, on many of these sandy beaches marine turtles make their nests just
above high water and these ought of course not to be disturbed. These sandy
beaches are generally surprisingly steep and energy-rich; there is a tidal
amplitude of a few metres and above MHW the large pits dug by the turtles are
everywhere, as are their tractor-like tracks down the beach. In the upper half
of the intertidal there are often quite large numbers of the swift ghost crabs
Ocypode, here surprisingly colourful and as always with their telltale funny
stalked eyes. Most beaches also have loafing California sea lions, as tame and
approachable as all wildlife here, and looking as if there are always in for a
game. In fact they maake the impression that life as such is only a wonderful
game! Unfortunately by now most beaches also have several groups of tourists
simultaneously, even if they usually are kept apart as well as possible. Some
of those people are clearly only interested in getting as closely as possible
to the animals and if possible petting them (strictly forbidden, of course);
this often does distract a little from the feeling of being in paradise, I must
confess.
This first day everything was new and wonderful for us, even the wet landings.
We watched in awe as Blue-footed Boobies dived sleekly like spears closely
inshore, while the somewhat more clumsy-looking Brown Pelicans made their
floppy dives in even more shallow water, so I was almost afraid they would bend
their beaks! They are very efficient fishermen, in spite of their seeming
clumsiness, and very often caught quite large fish. In that case the ever
watchful Common Noddies (those 'tern negatives', black with a whitish cap)came
flying in at once, usually landing and perching on the pelican's head, as I
have earlier seen Heermann's Gulls do in S. California. I had earlier seen
these noddies harassing fishing Audubon's Shearwaters, and they even show
interest in the diving boobies; they are clearly only out after 'spillage', as
the pelicans gulp their large prey whole. High above, all the time watchful and
somewhat sinister dark shapes hover overhead, the Magnificent Frigatebirds; a
few are usually also perched on the rigging of our ship.
On the crest of the beach a tall Great Blue Heron stands statuesquely still, a
good example of the tameness of the wildlife here, as he does not bother about
the visitors at all. Even the northern migrants seem somehow to be affected by
the 'paradise atmosphere': the Semipalmated Plovers, Turnstones, Whimbrels and
'peeps' (here Semipalmated and Western) are quite approachable. Thes latter we
found in the brackish lagoon 'behind the beach', where also two flaming
orange-pink Flamingos fed, again quite unconcernedly, while a pair of elegant
Black-necked Stilts posed for their photographs.
Most beaches, also this one, have some areas of rocky black lava intertidally.
This shows very little algal growth, but plenty of the showy and colourful
large Sally Lightfoot crabs. In addition to the migrant shorebirds and the
resident American Oystercatchers, one also finds surprisingly often vivid
splashes of yellow among these black cinders: the Yellow Warblers, ubiquitous
on these islands, often forage intertidally. Now and then there also small
herons here, once more ridiculously tame, and only concerned about their
chances of stalking prey. Usually this is the endemic Lava Heron, almost
disappearing among the lava stones, but also its slightly more colourful close
relative, the Striated Heron, occurs. The two seem to occupy almost the same
niche here.
The second day, at Cerro Brujo beach on S. Cristobal, the general impression
was much the same. We added Least Sandpiper to the list of peeps and this
light-legged midget would turn out to be the miost common peep of our tour. We
also found the first of many Wandering Tattlers. We also surprised a pair of
oystercatchers at the nest, changing the guard seemingly not at all bothering
about the batteries of cameras around.
On the third day we visited the fine sandy beach at Gardiners Bay at Española,
clearly also a favourite with the sea lions, which were lying around
everywhere, each group with a large 'beachmaster' ferociously barking out in
the surf. On this beach it is impossible not to mention landbirds. Not only did
several of the colourful and (you guessed it) very tame Galapagos Doves dig in
the sand here, but the stars were the endemic and large Hood Mockingbirds. They
also forage a lot on the beach and dig in the sand with their strong and long
curved bills, and they are ridiculously tame and curious, even more so than the
mockingbirds elsewhere on the islands (there are 4 species): they flock around
visitors and hope primarily for water, a resource in short supply on this very
dry island.
Wim Vader,
Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø,
Norway
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