Bartolome and Santiago Island
All of the photo workshop participants were up and off by six o’clock to climb Bartolome’s tuff cone with golden light and a fair breeze. The non-photo workshop guests followed half an hour later without the heavy gear and some breakfast in their tummies. Another photo session took place at Bartolome’s southern beach. Low tide is always a busy time for all sorts of shore creatures: ghost crabs rolling the sand pellets, marine iguanas nibbling seaweed off the rocks and migratory and resident shore birds doing their bit on invertebrates. But it was the numbers of sea turtles that caught everyone’s attention as they were on a reproduction-frenzy right at the shoreline. Snorkelers on the north beach reported white-tip sharks, turtles and penguins.
Polaris got to the west side of James Island on time and it was the snorkelers who disembarked first for their last session, and they were rewarded with large quantities of fish and playful sea-lions. Not many fur seals were sighted at the grotto but marine iguanas were showing the first step of their reproductive behaviour. Lava herons, turnstones, pelicans and a Galápagos hawk were seen during the coastal walk at high tide.
December is always an interesting time of the year.
Tomorrow morning we shall circumnavigate Daphne Major as a farewell.
All of the photo workshop participants were up and off by six o’clock to climb Bartolome’s tuff cone with golden light and a fair breeze. The non-photo workshop guests followed half an hour later without the heavy gear and some breakfast in their tummies. Another photo session took place at Bartolome’s southern beach. Low tide is always a busy time for all sorts of shore creatures: ghost crabs rolling the sand pellets, marine iguanas nibbling seaweed off the rocks and migratory and resident shore birds doing their bit on invertebrates. But it was the numbers of sea turtles that caught everyone’s attention as they were on a reproduction-frenzy right at the shoreline. Snorkelers on the north beach reported white-tip sharks, turtles and penguins.
Polaris got to the west side of James Island on time and it was the snorkelers who disembarked first for their last session, and they were rewarded with large quantities of fish and playful sea-lions. Not many fur seals were sighted at the grotto but marine iguanas were showing the first step of their reproductive behaviour. Lava herons, turnstones, pelicans and a Galápagos hawk were seen during the coastal walk at high tide.
December is always an interesting time of the year.
Tomorrow morning we shall circumnavigate Daphne Major as a farewell.
