The Deskbound Birder: Espanola Island (Galapagos and Ecuador)

Thursday, 22 August 2019

Espanola Island (Galapagos and Ecuador) - 22nd August (Day 9)

We awoke to a large swell anchored off the island of Espanola, as the sun-rose the ever present Blue-footed Booby, White-bellied Storm-petrel and Magnificent Frigatebird circled the boat. Scanning the island we could make out the large shapes of the Waved Albatross wheeling over the island, the main reason for visiting the island. After breakfast we boarded the panga and after a short but choppy crossing we landed at Punta Suarez on the western tip on this, the most southerly of the Galapagos islands. We were greeted by the endemic Espanola Mockingbird which hopped between our feet, the endemic subspecies of Marine Iguana lounged on the beach. Here the subspecies venustissimus is the most colourful of all, the males having extensive red blotching over the flanks. Galapagos Sea Lion littered the beaches and blocked the pathway, many here had very recently given birth with suckling young and placenta on the beach. We continued our walk seeing numerous Swallow-tailed Gull, Blue-footed Booby and Nazca Booby and smaller numbers of Red-tailed Tropicbird, Galapagos Dove and Lava Heron. After dropping into a small bay on the south coast of the island, where Marine Iguana were particularly abundant, we climbed to the cliff top where we encountered a stunning pair of Waved Albatross, rather ungainly on land with their peculiar neck swinging waddle these are stunning birds up close with their vermiculated brown plumage, white heads with yellow wash and large yellow bills. Wandering onwards over the plateau we encountered Espanola Cactus-finch, an immature Galapagos Hawk dismantling a Lava Lizard and Blue-footed Booby tending their chicks, some nests with a single well grown chick while others had two chicks one of which was inevitably smaller and weaker than the other and destined not to fledge the nest. Into the main colony of Waved Albatross I was a little disappointed that there were relatively few birds, c.30 in number, and with display largely over as the birds awaited the arrival of their eggs. Still, these were fantastic birds to see at such close range. There are estimated to be less that 12,000 breeding pairs of Waved Albatross 99% of which breed on Espanola, the only other breeding population is on Isla de la Plata off the coast of Ecuador. We wandered onto the cliff edge over looking a wave cut platform where there was a fantastic blow hole which shot water 20m into the air on each incoming wave. Here on the cliff edge we also enjoyed the site of flyby Waved Albatross at eye height, breeding Blue-footed Booby, Wandering Tattler and American Oystercatcher. After 30 minutes or so here we wandered back along the short trail that we had walked obtaining a close view of a c.1m long Espanola Racer. After boarding the boat we steamed around the island to Gardner Beach on the north-west coast of the island where after lunch we had a short walk on the beach and then snorkelled around an offshore rock, we saw relatively little but for two Marbled Ray and a close encountered with an underwater Galapagos Sea Lion. The evening was spent on board doing some seawatching but seeing little but for White-bellied Storm-petrel and Galapagos Shearwater in the shallow coastal waters. We steamed north-east for around five hours to Floreana.