Seeing the Albatross

One of the other big highlights of the Galapagos Islands was seeing the Waved Albatross.  It was entertaining to watch it try to land with its seven foot long wingspan. It took a couple of tries for it to slow down enough to get a safe landing without hurting itself.

Another highlight of seeing the Waved Albatross was watching it do it's mating dance which was extremely loud with lots clicking and clacking.  Because it was August there was over fifteen albatross nesting in a clearing.  Like the Blue Footed Booby the albatross didn't seem to notice or care about all the people that were walking by the nesting sight.

A few years ago the albatross were having big problems with tourism.  From 1995 to 2013, the tourist rate has gone from 50,000 people per year to 160,000. So it was decided that each tourist group would have a different route through the Galapagos islands so that there would't be too many people on one island at a time. Ever since this rule was enforced the amount of wild life including the albatross on Galapagos Islands has increased.

The Blue Footed Booby

Hi everyone, I'm back in Austin after being in Panama and Ecuador for 18 days.  One of my favorite parts of the trip was seeing the blue footed booby in the Galapagos Islands. The name booby comes from the spanish term bobo which means stupid or fool because when it was first discovered it seemed very clumsy when it was on land.  The blue footed booby is also regarded as foolish for being fearless towards humans.  

Unlike lots of animals found on the Galapagos Islands the blue footed booby is not endemic but can be found along the east coast of South America. In fact,  I saw one in Panama out in the middle of the ocean. One of the best parts of seeing the blue footed booby was being able to get really close to them without scaring them. They are so tame because they've never been threatened by any human activity.  For example, I took the photo above and I didn't use a telephoto lens. One of them was actually nesting in the middle of the nature trail and didn't seem to care when I stepped over it.  A few minutes later it stood up to readjust the egg that it was warming under its feet.

Boobies normally lay two to three eggs. Blue foots are also only one of the 2 species of boobies that can raise more the one chick at a time.  The eggs are normally laid five days apart and because blue foots don't have any underbelly fur they keep the eggs warm with their feet. The incubation period for boobies is 41 to 45 days.  After they hatch they spend 2 months with their parents before the parents leave and the baby is left to find food for itself. It takes the baby another 2 years for it to fully grow.

                                   

I took these pictures on Espanola Island which by far had the most Boobies.  I learned that they tend to feed in large groups. I loved watching the plunge diving they did to catch fish. They also feed on sardines, anchovies, mackerel and flying fish but occasionally they'll switch to squid and offal. Here is a video showing the plunge diving, however, I did not take this video.