Day 8 - Santiago Island

 

Map of area

After a really rough night at sea, we woke up to views of Santiago Island and the schedule was a lot more relaxed. Our first excursion was a ride in the inflatables around Buccaneer Cove which has very high vertical cliffs. We saw Blue Footed and Nazca Boobies on a large rock that was covered in bird droppings and made it look like snow. We also saw a Yellow Crowned Night Heron, some Common Noddy Terns, plenty of sea lions and pelicans and a Red Necked Phalarope.


We then had the choice of kayaking or snorkelling so we chose to kayak. We had a relaxing ride around the bay and saw the same animals and birds as in the morning.


Nazca Boobys

Blue Footed Booby

Swallow Tailed Gull

Yellow Crowned Night Heron

Swallow tailed gull

Sea plant growing at water edge

Swallow Tailed Gull

Sea Plant growing at water edge

Red Necked Phalarope


Common Noddy Tern

White Rock - white caused by bird droppings.

Santiago Island

Santiago Island

 
Sea birds diving for fish off Santiago Island



After lunch the boat moved on to Puerto Egas, still on Santiago Island, which was once the site of a salt mine in the 1920s and 1960s but the operations failed and a few buildings remain but no-one lives here anymore. Our final excursion of the day was a circular walk around the area where we saw Land Iguanas, a Wandering Tattler (which was only seen by myself but the guide identified it from my photo), a smooth billed Ani, Fur Seals, a butterfly (the only one seen so far) , Common Noddy Birds landing on Pelicans heads and Galapagos Oystercatchers.


Santiago Island with volcano

First butterfly of visit - unidentified

Wandering Tattler

Lava Heron


Santiago Island

Galapagos Flycatcher and Yellow Warbler

Galapagos Oystercatcher

Santiago Island

Fur Seal (only found in this area)

Natural arch on Santiago Island

Lava Heron

Smoth Billed Ani

Galapagos Dove

Land Iguana

Galapagos Mocking Bird


Sea Lion

Galapagos Oystercatcher
Noddy Terns landing on Pelians head to catch small fish 
filtered out of Pelicans beak after feeding on a larger fish

Noddy Terns landing on Pelians head to catch small fish 
filtered out of Pelicans beak after feeding on a larger fish

Sea lion and pup

Sea Lion with pup struggling to get up the rocks



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