Flooded crater - Genovesa Is.

 

Saturday, June 1st

We awoke surrounded by the walls of a flooded crater that comprised Genovesa Island, frigate birds, boobies and gulls wheeling overhead.

 

 

 

 

 

Although still very much a volcano, Genovesa, like Marchena and Pinta in the NW and Darwin and Wolf in the NE, were not created like the rest of the archipelago from the hotspot in the crust, but from friction created by the Nazca tectonic plate sliding under the South American plate.

 

The misty overcast 'la garua' season due in June had arrived right on time and thankfully provided cooler conditions for our walk.

 

 

The panga took us to El Barranco, a notch in the cliffs where steep steps had been constructed to the top of the cliff.

 

On the rim, Nazca and blue footed boobies were nesting on the ground, and red footed boobies and Great frigate birds (different from the Magnificent on other islands: all black except for some iridescent green on their backs) in the bushes, many right beside or even on the path. Many of the male frigates were on nests with their red balloons inflated to attract females.

 

 

We searched the deep cracks for owls but only found a yellow crowned night heron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male Great frigate with red throat and irridescent green backon the lookout for a female with white chest (below) to impress

 

 

 

 

 

Two males courting the one female.

 

 

 Nasca booby;

 

Nesting on the ground in the middle of the path.

Red footed boobies nested in the trees all around.

 Look at my lovely RED feet!

 Red footed male gathering twigs for nesting

 

 

 A pair of red-foots performing their greeting

Five per cent of the red footed boobies are white instead of brown, but all have beautiful pink lores and blue bills with black underneath the bill.

On the other side of the rim, the band-rumpled storm petrels that nested on the cliffface were flying above the cliffs like a cloud of butterflies, trying to avoid the frigate birds that prey on them.







The smallest Darwin ground finch was feeding on the ground plants (Portulaca),

and black carpenter bees were foraging on the abundant yellow flowers.

 

Back to the Nemo to change for our deep water snorkel on the other side of the crater, the best site for hammerhead sharks. Sure enough, soon after we got in the water, a school of about six came up from the depths of the crater to cruise over the shallower rocks (no more than 6 m deep) to check us out before returning to the depths. We all stayed in a tight group as we swam up and back under the cliffs, but I didn't see any more sharks, only a few black and yellow striped moorish idols ( a sign of warmer water) and the usual parrot and surgeon fish.  (Sadly my underwater camera had finally died so no photos of the sharks)

We cruised back along the cliffs in the panga to Nemo, getting some glimpses of the lovely red billed white tropic birds. Apparently the frigate birds chase them and pull their long white tail feathers, imitating their chicks’ behaviour to get them to regurgitate their latest meal.

Fur seals were curled up in the small caves at the base of the cliff.