eGlobal Education: The birds and beasts of Espaniola Island, Galapagos

baby albatross waiting for its parents to feed it

Espaniola is several hours by boat from Floreana. Fortunately, our travel is at night so we can spend the entire day at each of the islands we’re visiting.

Espaniola beach at sunset

Espaniola is a flat-topped island, pushed upwards in several major volcanic events that occurred here. Today, the volcanos on the eastern islands are “extinct”, but Isabela, in the western islands, has several active volcanos, extending the archipelago farther west. We won’t visit Isabela on this trip, but were there 2 years ago and watched at night as its main volcano, the Wolf Volcano, erupted.

mother and baby sea lions sleeping

There are thousands of birds on Espaniola. It is the only place where one species of albatrosses nests. These birds are pelagic, finding their food in the deep ocean, not the shallower shelves and shores. They can spend 6 months or more flying way out at sea, returning to Espaniola when it is time to mate. Albatrosses mate for life and spend a lot of time grooming and nuzzling their mates when they get back to Espaniola. Then, they lay one egg, cared for by both parents.
They share the island with thousands of Nasca Boobies, also with eggs and babies. We watched some young boobies working hard at mastering their wings and getting ready to fly for the first time.

There are thousands of marine iguanas on this island, so you have to walk carefully to avoid stepping on them. When it’s warm, they loll on the sand and rocks, often all on top of one another to generate extra warmth. Then, when they’re hungry, off they crawl at a surprising speed to launch themselves into the ocean where they feed on the algae and mosses covering the rocks. We watched one iguana that had gone a bit too far out to sea struggling to return to land in the midst of large waves that were pounding the rocks. We’d see him carried forward by a wave, only to be sent back out by the backwash when the wave hit the rocks. Eventually, he struggled onto a rock. It is easy for these reptiles to drown if they can’t get back onto land.

Galapagos Hawk

Espaniola’s sea lions were already giving birth, though the big birth season starts in December. We saw many baby seals, some sleeping while their mothers went off in search of food.

baby sea lion waiting for its mom

Others were nursing while still more were merely snuggling against their moms for a little more warmth and security.

Here, too, is where we saw the Galapagos Hawk bring its baby Blue Booby to kill and share with her own babies. Very sad to watch, but, then, the hawk babies need to eat to survive also.

Lava lizards skitter across the rocks. Selly crabs, showing off their bright red and yellow colors, thrive on the rocks by the water, often getting deluged by a wave, but clinging to their perches nonetheless.
Espaniola also has several beautiful white sand beaches, clearly not crowded as only 120 people are allowed on the island each day. The Galapagos National Park Service sets every itinerary of every boat and also the stringent limits on where you can go on each island. So, the animals are unafraid of humans and no longer molested by them (as the whalers and merchant marines used to do when they stopped in the Galapagos to replenish their water and meat--giant land tortoise--supplies).

This season, there are hundreds of marine turtles in the waters around the islands. We could see them from our zodiacs as we were heading to snorkel or walk on the islands and some of us got to swim with them (we were thrilled; they ignored us).