Day 13: Floreana - Saturday February 3rd 2018
Floreana is named for Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose time in office Ecuador first took possession of the Galapagos Islands. It is one of the most southerly in the archipelago. We arrived here overnight and after an early breakfast we visited Cormorant Point. Later we cruised to Puerto Velasco Ibarra and took a bus into the highlands. Finally we made a wet landing at Post Office Bay.
Our cloudiest day of the Galapagos tour. Our first morning visit to the shore involved a wet landing on the green sand beach on the western side of Cormorant Point (Punta Cormorán). The sand is green(ish) due to presence of the mineral olivine. Apparently, no-one has a clear idea about why it is called Cormorant Point - there are no cormorants here. We quickly crossed the neck of the peninsula to the white sand beach on the eastern side. We had crossed quickly with the purpose in mind of seeing turtles that had come ashore during the night, before they returned to the sea. But I think we had left much too late to have a realistic prospect of seeing them. We had a pleasant enough stroll along the beach and enjoyed watching the Brown Pelicans flying along the shore, diving and generally enjoying themselves. Returning the way we had come we were introduced to some of the specialised flora of the coastal and arid zones and we spent time observing the Greater Flamingos on a large lagoon just inland of the (green sand) beach.
During the cruise from Cormorant Point to Puerto Velasco Ibarra we encountered large flocks of phalaropes, I estimated we saw ~2000 birds. Rissel told us they were Grey Phalaropes, but the three species of phalarope are closely similar in winter plumage and although I was reasonably content to accept his judgment at the time I made a mental note to check. They had obvious wing-bars so Wilson's Phalarope could be ruled out. One of my Galapagos field guides does not even mention Grey Phalarope, the other says that it is a regular migrant but that Red-necked Phalarope is much commoner. The main identification feature is the bill which is longer and finer in Red-necked Phalarope. The image below shows a flock of what I am now sure are Red-necked Phalarope. The insets at the top are enlargements of birds from this flock, the inset at the bottom is a Grey Phalarope from the UK. I think the difference in the bill is fairly obvious once you look for it.
After arrival at Puerto Velasco Ibarra we were transferred 5km, by chiva (a truck with benches), on what appeared to be the only road on the island, to Asilo de la Paz ("Peace Haven"). This was another tortoise sanctuary, but our purpose here was to seek out Medium Tree Finch, which occurs only on Floreana. These are very similar to Large Tree Finch which also occurs here. We soon found a likely candidate, but unfortunately not everyone got onto it. The walking trail took us up to some caves, where early western settlers (from Germany) had established a base near a fresh water spring when they first arrived in 1929.
On the way down Rissel (and Liz) saw a Mockingbird. Floreana Mockingbird has been wiped out as a breeding species on Floreana, by introduced pests (rats and cats) and survives only on the nearby islet (Gardner). But apparently they do visit Floreana from there from time to time. It is likely that this is what they saw. Unfortunately Rissel had no means of communication with the driver of the chiva, so we were unable to stop. |
The landing at Post Office Bay is of human historic more than natural historic interest - being a landing site where whalers were able to leave messages for each other and to be taken home. There is a rather contrived reconstruction of it - visitors can leave postcards for others to deliver (by hand) back to themselves. Several people had left a message with a specific instruction that it was not to be delivered, but rather to be collected by their future selves, if they were ever to return, or by their offspring. There is a walking trail that leads to some caves. Rissel told us that we couldn't go there because "the captain said" it would be unsafe as it had been raining. "The captain says" was a phrase Rissel used on several occasions to restrict an activity. I had no special desire to go to the caves, and was perfectly content with the prolonged kayaking session I had while others went for a panga ride along the shore.