The Deskbound Birder: Floreana Island (Galapagos and Ecuador)

Friday 23 August 2019

Floreana Island (Galapagos and Ecuador) - 23rd August (Day 10)

We awoke to quite a swell off Floreana with waves crashing onto the beach and the landing jetty. Heiro considered that this was likely a result of recent seismic activity. After breakfast we boarded the panga and landed at Puerto Velasco Ibarra in the west of the island where we were greeted by a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night-heron, Galapagos Sea Lion and Marine Iguana. We then boarded a Chiva, a lorry with the rear converted to passenger seating, and drove into the mountains to the old Witmer property known as Asilo de Paz. Here we quickly encountered our principal target the Critically Endangered and rapidly declining Medium Tree-finch. We wandered through the scrubby forest seeing Galapagos Flycatcher, Grey Warbler-finch, Small Tree-finch and our first Galapagos Giant Tortoise which here are held in semi-captivity having a large walled enclosure in which to wander. Back at Puerto Velasco we visited the Witmer Hotel for a cold coke while offshore we watched Brown Pelican, Galapagos Penguin, Green Sea Turtle and Brown Noddy. We boarded the boat and steamed around the island to Post Office Bay in the north of the island, a famous spot where there has been a post office box formed of a wooden barrel present since 1792. The post box was erected by Captain James Colnett (no relation of mine). Mariners placed letters in the barrel in the hope that subsequent visitors would collect and deliver mail addressed to destinations they were heading to. The tradition continues and the group rummaged through the hundreds of postcards and collected those from their home or nearby towns - we placed our postcards in the barrel which, miraculously, were delivered to our family around one month later.

We then headed to the lagoon at Punta Cormoranta, a large saline lagoon in the north of the island just back from the beach. Here we recorded 12 American Flamingo, White-cheeked Pintail and a single adult winter Wilson’s Phalarope. Back to the boat we then steamed the short distance to Champion Island to the north-east of Floreana and only a kilometre or so offshore. This small island vegetated with numerous Giant Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia species). As we approached the island we observed numerous Red-billed Tropicbird, Brown Noddy, Swallow-tailed Gull, Galapagos Shearwater and Magnificent Frigatebird. Our main target here, Floreana Mockingbird quickly showed itself and we eventually had good views of at least four birds as they called from atop the Opuntia and foraged along the cliff-top. This Critically Endangered species, once found on Floreana but extirpated by introduced species, is now confined to the tiny island of Champion and to Gardner Island to the south-east of Floreana neither of which can be landed upon to protect the Mockingbird. There are thought to be no more than 250 of this species left on Earth.

We began our five hour steam to San Cristobal Island to the north-east seawatching for the last hour or so of daylight but seeing little but for small numbers of Wedge-rumped Storm-petrel and Waved Albatross.