A female blue-footed booby with two eggs. Notice what seems like an explosion of white around the nest. This was the explation we received; the female needs to move around the eggs regularly (as the top part which is closest to her gets too hot after a while). So this egg rotating process also requires her to move around the nest. The white "explosion" around the nest is only the result of her constantly moving around the nest to adjust the egg temperature and not getting up to excrete.
A mother with her young very white and puffy chick.
Yes there are sea gulls even on the Galapagos Islands -- over 1000 KM from the mainland!! You just can't escape them!
These are swallow tail gulls, which have a distinctive red outline around their eyes.
This is the Galapagos famous headless bird!
Actually this is probably a sleeping gull or booby. They stick their head under their wings and stand up while they are sleeping.
Here is the view of the same from above.
The impressive albatross is usually only seen on Espanola island,...
...where there is a large colony of nests. Mating albatross also have funny rituals including bobbing their heads left to right and back while looking for another albatross who's head bobbing matches theirs. When the mating albatross walks, it looks as though its neck is broken!
On Floreana Island, we saw flamingos feeding in the island's salty lagoons. (Did you know that flamingos are pink because they mostly eat shrimp!?)
Equatorial Penguins in the galapagos are the northern most penguins on earth. We only saw a few of these guys. What I find most odd about this shot is the penguin is standing right below a cactus. Who would have thought?
On land they walk pretty wobbly, but they are fast and steady under water. While Dave and I were snorkeling, we saw one glide swiftly right below us!
We saw a few hawks on the islands as well. Hawks are the main predators of the Galapagos islands.
Supposedly, they tend to eat mostly animals that are sick or dying. Just like with the sharks, it is odd to find these predator animals stand non-chalantly next to us.
Lastly, here is a predator that you never saw coming! The mockingbirds on the Galapagos islands are carnivorous! They may look innocent and cute but we saw the proof -- on one island, one was pecking at and eating another bird!!
So watch them from a distance -- these are killer mockingbirds !
Actually they are not dangerous to humans. However, at one point, Sarah, from our cruise, took out a water bottle for a sip and was in seconds surrounded by mockingbirds (when she opened the bottle, one jumped on her arm!). These are sneaky birds!
