Galapagos Animals

This is a collection of the animals I saw on my trip to the Galapagos Islands.
It is amazing just how close they will come to you. And how photogenic they are. This lovely little sea lion pup wanted to be famous.

This pup was just a few days old

And what a delicious looking face on this one.

My favourite though is the marine iguanas. They are everywhere and you are practically tripping over them. I thing they have fantastic smiles.

"Am I a cutie?"

They like to huddle in the sun to get warm enough to brave the sea.

And they like to hang out with Sally Lightfoot crabs

Who also like to pose. Everyone took this chappie's photo as he was just a big poser.

There didn't seem to be many insects about, but this locust was huge.


These are lava lizards, they are slightly different on each island. The female has a red neck, whilst the male are less colourful

The most famous animals on the Galapagos are the tortoises. They are different on each island. This chappie is the most famous of all - Lonesome George. Although he's not quite so lonesome any more. Apparently he has mated with 2 "cousins"

There was a park in the city of Guayaquil where the wildlife were happy to eat snacks off visitors. I think this squirrel is just showing off.

He will take food off anyone

Iguanas lived in the trees. You had to be careful not to stand underneath as when they poop, they really poop

You can get ever so close to them, even stroke them.

And a MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Galapagos

Back in September me and MrJoo went to the Galapagos Islands on a fab scuba diving trip. I wasn't really into birds at the time, but I still managed to photograph some lovely birds. Here are a few photos of some nice local birds.



The mockingbird was a very common bird. They were just so "tame" and you had to be careful you didn't step on them. They are absolutely gorgeous.

A nice close-up

And another

I am not sure what these are but there were a few of them in a puddle just washing themselves and shaking the water out. We sat for ages watching them, but the light was going and they were shaking too much, so I didn't get a good photo.

Then this guy turned up. A Galapagos dove. What blue eyes he has.


Another bird I'm not sure of. Again, gorgeous.

Even photographed some pigeons, although to be honest, they weren't what I was photographing.

At a local farm they had chickens - with nice strong legs !!

I think he's in charge.

These are lava herons. They are quite sinister looking birds. In a cartoon, they would definitely be the bad guys.

Don't you agree?

We may have been on the equator, but yes, this is a penguin. A Galapagos penguin. I didn't see one underwater unfortunately, but the others did (lucky them)

Now these are Darwin finches. They are different on each island and are what inspired him to "discover" evolution. These were on Floreana Island. We can round a corner through a rock passage and there were a good few dozen of them. Again, really tame.

And this one was on Santa Cruz Island, he looks a bit more meaner than the others

And the infamous booby. You cannot believe how close I got to him either. In fact I don't think I used a zoom and there's not a lot of cropping on this pic.

Lovely duckies

Bottoms up !!!

I have saved my favourites for last. Pelicans. What an amazing bird. There was a "fish bar" where the fishermen would park up and gut the fish and sell to housewives. The pelicans would gather around and sidle closer and wait for scraps and innards. The birds would watch every move of the fisherman's hand and would move their heads as one. The fishermen would swipe a stick at them or turn the hose pipe on them to get them to back off. But seconds later they would be back there. Check out my video at the bottom of my blog.

At the boats

Queuing for an offcut

Even the sea lion joined in. He was cuter so got more scraps.

I expect I will post land animals and under water animals in future weeks as I have no garden bird tales to tell in the week as it's just too dark to see my lovely birdies.

I hope I have inspired you to save and save and save and save to afford a trip to the wonderful Galapagos Islands