November 2012 Natural Habitat Adventures visit

1. QUITO AND THE GALÁPAGOS
ISLANDS
LAS ISLAS ENCANTADAS

2. ECUADOR AND THE GALÁPAGOS

3. Ecuador

4. Lat: 00º 00’ 0”
Long: 90º 00’ 0” W

5. Quito
Altitude: 9350’ Population: 2.5 million

8. Colonial Quito

9. Plaza de San Francisco

10. Plaza de San Francisco

11. Basílica del Voto Nacional
Tortoises, Iguanas and Boobies

12. Celebrating the Founding of Quito (1534)

14. La Mitad del Mundo
At the Equator

15. Otavalo Market

20. THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS
San Cristóbal

21. San Cristóbal
Puerto Bazquiero Moreno

22. San Cristóbal
Punta Carola
Candelabra Cactus

23. Matazarno

24. Galápagos Cotton

25. Giant Prickly Pear Cactus Palo Santo

26. Kicker Rock, “El León Dormido”

27. Fishing with Brown Pelicans

28. Great Blue Heron San Cristóbal (Chatham)
Mockingbird

29. Charles Darwin

30. Darwin’s Voyage in the Galápagos

31. THE M/Y LETTY
Observation deck
Dolphin deck
Booby deck
Iguana deck

32. From the Panga to the Letty

33. Booby Deck Lounge Area

34. Booby Deck Dining Area

35. Dolphin Deck
Cabin #4 Bathroom
Hallway

36. Dolphin Deck, stern
Observation Deck, bow Observation Deck, stern

37. Natural Habitat Adventures
Planned Itinerary

38. Sunset over the Pacific
from the Letty the first night

39. Genovesa

40. Genovesa
Darwin Bay

41. Darwin Bay
Entrance to the Caldera

42. Darwin Bay
Sighting Towers

43. Red-billed Tropicbird
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Galápagos Sea Lions

44. Prince Philip’s Steps

45. Nazca Boobies

46. Red-footed Booby
Galápagos Mockingbird Short-eared Owl

47. Yellow Cordia Warbler Finch
Lava Cactus Nazca Booby (headless)

48. Nazca Booby Feeding Chick

50. Red-footed Booby
Great Frigatebird juvenile

52. Genovesa
Darwin Bay Beach

53. Swallow-tailed Gull Swallow-tailed Gull juvenile
Galápagos Dove American Oystercatcher

54. Red-footed Booby

55. Red-footed Booby juveniles Whimbrel
Lava Gull female Lava Gull

56. Giant Prickly Pear Cactus
Galápagos Sea Lion and pup
Large Ground Finch female

57. Yellow-crowned Night Heron juvenile

58. Genovesa
Darwin Bay

59. Santa Cruz
Playa Las Bachas

60. Blacktip Reef Shark
Marine Iguana tracks
Lava Gull and Sanderling

61. Sally Lightfoot Crabs
Striated Heron Semi-palmated Plover

62. Brown Pelican Brown Noddies
Brown Noddy… hoping

63. Pacific Green Sea Turtles Over the dunes
Pacific Green Sea Turtle tracks Pacific Green Sea Turtle nest

64. Black-necked Stilt White-cheeked Pintail
Greater Flamingo

65. Yellow Warbler Medium Ground Finch female
Leatherleaf

66. Daphne Major
Daphne Minor
Daphne Major is the location of Peter and Rosemary Grant’s research on
Darwin’s Finches as described in The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner. It
is visible from Bachas Beach.

67. North Seymour

68. Land Iguanas
Large Ground Finch female Small Ground Finch pair

69. Great Frigatebird males
Magnificent Frigatebird pair and chick

70. Great Frigatebird Magnificent Frigatebirds

71. Blue-footed Boobies

75. Galápagos Fur Seals

76. Blue-footed Boobies Marine Iguanas “Los Tres Amigos”
Galápagos Sea Lion Galápagos Carpetweed

77. Fernandina
Punta Espinosa

78. Evening sighting: Spotted Eagle Rays
Early morning near Redonda: Minke and Bryde’s Whale spouts

79. Fernandina
Punta Espinosa

80. Lava fields

81. Marine Iguanas

82. Galápagos Sea Lion
Lava Lizard
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Lava Tubes

83. Lava Cactus Roberto and Giancarlo
Bottlenose Dolphin skeleton New soil from lava

84. Marine Iguana Flightless Cormorant
Hawksbill? Turtle Pacific Green Sea Turtle

85. Flightless Cormorant

87. Galápagos Hawk
Marine Iguana and Brown Pelican

89. Isabela
Punta Vicente Roca

92. Brown Noddy

93. Blue-footed Boobies Yellow Warbler

94. Galápagos Penguin

95. Sea Lions and Penguins

96. Flightless Cormorant Pacific Green Sea Turtle
Galápagos Shearwater feeding frenzy

97. Pacific Green Sea Turtle
Shearwaters, Pelicans, and Boobies
Galápagos Shearwater
Galápagos Fur Seal

98. Volcanic dykes

99. Baltra and Santa Cruz

100. Baltra and Santa Cruz
Meduim Ground Finch

101. Natural Habitat Adventures Tortoise Camp

102. Road obstacle Galápagos Giant Tortoise
Retreating into the shell How to move a tortoise off the road

104. Los Gemelos (The Twins)
Collapsed craters

105. Galápagos Flycatcher Galápagos Orchid

106. Natural Habitat Adventures
Giant Tortoise Camp
Shower and toilet buildings
Tent cabin #2

107. Dining area
Tree house and tortoise

108. Inside the lave tube cave
Tree house cabin

109. Morning in the Santa Cruz Highlands

110. Natural Habitat Adventures Tortoise Camp

111. Santa Cruz
Puerto Ayora

112. In the tortoise nursery

114. Feeding time
Cactus Finch
Lava Lizard

115. In and around Puerto Ayora

117. Sanderling Ruddy Turnstone

118. Great Blue heron
Blue-footed Booby with Pelicans

119. Santa Fe

120. Great Frigatebird female
Waved Albatross

121. Santa Fe

122. Santa Fe Land Iguana

123. Galápagos Dove Galápagos Mocking bird
Galápagos Hawk

124. Galápagos Hawk

125. Galápagos Sea Lions

126. San Cristóbal
Post Office Bay (Isla Floreana)

127. Bottlenose Dolphins at the bow

128. The last evening on board the Letty
Captain and crew (partial)
Newly baptized Semi-palmated Plover

129. Galápagos National Park Interpretive
Center
Western islands
Central islands
Eastern islands

130. Galápagos National Park Interpretive
Center
Facsimile of Post Office Bay
Genovesa

131. Isla Santa Fe, December 1, 2012

132. CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN, 1809-1882
Darwin visits the Galápagos, September, 1835
 On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the
Struggle for Life, 1859
 The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex,
1871

133. The Origin “does not document the origin of a single species,
or a single case of natural selection, or the preservation of one
favored race in the struggle for life.”
Darwin “marshalled an enormous mass of evidence that
evolution has happened. Yet Darwin never saw it happen.”
“Natural selection by itself is not evolution. It is only a
mechanism … that can lead to evolution … . Natural selection
takes place within a generation, but evolution takes place
across generations.”
–– Jonathan Weiner, The Beak of the Finch

134. Darwin’s Finches
● Thirteen species, thought to have descended from a
common ancestor
 Ground Finches: Small, Medium, Large and Sharp-beaked
 Tree Finches: Small, Medium and Large
 Cactus Finch and Large Cactus Finch
 Vegetarian Finch
 Warbler Finch
 Mangrove Finch
 Woodpecker Finch
● Some can be found throughout the islands; others are
localized
● All are rather drab; usually the males are dark in
color, while the females are lighter and streaked

135. “The diversity of beak structure and feeding habits within this
group is remarkable. The individual species feed in a variety of
ways with each specialized in a particular way. Some eat
seeds, some eat insects, some remove ticks from
tortoises, some eat leaves, some eat flowers, some drink blood
from seabirds, and there are two species that use twigs or
cactus spines to extract insect larvae from holes in the dead
branches of trees.”
–– Michael Jackson, Galápagos: A Natural History

136. Small Ground Finch Medium Ground Finch

137. Cactus Finch
Large Ground finch
Large Cactus Finch
Warbler Finch

138. Mockingbirds
San Cristóbal Galápagos
or Chatham (Found on all islands)
Narrow collar, streaked breast Wider collar, no streaks

139. Land Iguanas
Galápagos Santa Fe
Dark golden brown, medium spines Light golden color, longer neck spines

140. Giant Prickly Pear Cactus
Genovesa
San Cristóbal
Santa Fe
Santa Cruz

141. Land Iguana with cactus fruit
Photos courtesy of Gloria Broudy

142. Galápagos Penguin Waved Albatross juvenile
Sally Lightfoot Crab
Photos courtesy of Harry Brull