Beautify Boobys

Blue Footed Booby

No, this post is not about what you think! These are the Blue footed, Red Footed and Nazca  boobys. The blue footed booby was high on my wish list, so being able to see these incredibly boobys was great.

In the afternoon of of the second day of my Galápagos trip, we did another wet landing and a hefty climb to look for Boobys. They did say that the walk would be tough, and they were not wrong. During the lunch which was discussed in the previous post, the anchor was again lifted and we headed off to another point on San Chritobal Island.  This was to Pitt point which is a volcanic tuff. This is basically an old weathered volcano. This is the only place in the Galapagos where all three species of boobys can be found together. After another wet landing we started the tough climb up the steep cliffs. The climb was really thought, or I am just getting old and/or very unfit. Could also be a combination of the two. The climb was well worth it though.

View of the boat

We were greeted with beautify views of our boat in the bay. The first of the boobys was also seen. This was a young blue footed booby. We eventually reached a plateau and in a tree was the first Red Footed booby. Yes, perched in a tree! Red footed boobys, just link the other booby or gannet species are sea birds with webbed feet. So, finding a web footed bird perched in a tree was quit amazing! They nest in the trees!  So, if you see a booby in the tree, it is a red footed booby. After spending some time looking at the red footed booby, we move along the plateau to a colony of blue footed boobys.

Red footed booby. They perch in trees, web feet and all.

Again, these birds were totally not interested in the humans who were looking at them. You could get very close to these birds. The nature guides were always close by to prevent anyone from getting too close to the birds. The blue colour in the feet is a result of their diet. The bluer the feet the better the bird is at catching fish, so the better he would be able to provide for the chicks. So, in the mating ritual, the male shows his feet to a very unimpressed looking female. He dances around, lifting up his feet to show her. I guess the fact that she does not fly away means that she might be interested, although her mating gesture was to show no interest in him at all while he dances around. I guess not too different from the human female! Standing around looking unimpressed while the male does all he can to impress her!

Further along the plateau there were also a few Nazca boodys as well. These look pretty much like the Blue footed booby, except they do not have blue feet.
After spending some great time with the Boobys, it was time to head on down the slop again. I am not sure which is more difficult, going up or coming down! Coming down is much more strenuous on the knees, particularly when your knees are stuffed.

Seals on the beach

We reached the beach where the  regulation Sea Lions were lying on the beach. Sea lions are on every beach!
Getting back onto the dingy was really interesting. There were quite big waves. Having a camera bag also made getting onto the dingy in the waves a bit more of a challenge. Anyway, everyone made it back onto the dingies and we headed back to the boat for another wonderful meal and briefing for the next exciting day! The boated moved off to the next island and a new day in the Galápagos .

Beautify booby