The Deskbound Birder: North Seymour Island (Galapagos and Ecuador)

Sunday, 18 August 2019

North Seymour Island (Galapagos and Ecuador) - 18th August (Day 5)

We were up at 05:00 for our 06:00 departure from hotel near to Quito Airport for our 08:10 flight to Guayaquil. After a 45 minute stopover in Guayaquil we were heading for Baltra on the Galapagos Islands, a 1.5 hour flight. We passed through customs relatively quickly paying $100 per person entrance fee to the islands, on emerging from the airport we quickly connected with both Small Ground-finch and Medium Ground-finch . We then boarded a coach and transferred to the dock where we boarded the catamaran Nemo III our home for the next seven nights. Birds around the dock included our first Lava Heron, Blue-footed Booby, Brown Pelican and Magnificent Frigatebird. After boarding the boat we had a debrief and then lunch and while in harbour recorded our first White-vented Storm-petrel, Nazca Booby and Lava Gull.

After lunch we steamed north for c.45 minutes to North Seymour Island where, as we approached shore, new birds included Galapagos Shearwater and our first stunning Swallow-tailed Gull as well as abundant Great Frigatebird, Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Booby and Brown Pelican. Boarding the rib at around 14:30 we made the short journey to the landing and walked ashore surrounded by Swallow-tailed Gulls and Galapagos Sea-lion as Frigatebird's swooped low overhead. We did a circular walk of around 1km along the beach and then back through scrub in the centre of the island. Magnificent Frigatebird and Great Frigatebird (the more common) nested in the low shrubs, where many had well grown young. Dotted amongst these on the ground were Blue-footed Booby, some performing their courtship display while well grown, adult sized young wandered around independently. Other birds we recorded included Galapagos Dove and Yellow Warbler while large Land Iguanas (introduced on North Seymour), chomped their way through the endemic cacti. At 17:30 we headed back to the rib enjoying stunning views of Swallow-tailed Gull down to 3m in the evening sunlight.

After boarding the boat we headed southwards as the sunset, we picked up two Galapagos Petrel while the boat was accompanied by a flotilla of Frigatebird's and Globula Ray leapt from the water. We anchored in a sheltered bay where after a safety drill, crew introductions and dinner we steamed northwards towards Genovesa, a 10 hour overnight journey. It was fairly rough as we entered the open water and Sarah and Tobias feeling felt slightly queazy due to the motion of the boat - others suffered more considerably!