And then there were the birds!

                      The frigates flew with the boat much of the time, but this day I was up above at the right time and enjoyed taking their photos. I enjoyed watching all of the birds wherever we were but four hikes, one the first part of the week and three of our last four outings focused on the islands' birds. I've shown you the flamingo and the pelican in other posts. Iguanas were in some of the areas with birds so they'll show up here too. The one below was my favorite. Could it have something to do with the color?!

The bird above was found in the same swamp as the flamingo--a Galapagos mockingbird.

We climbed up a rocky path to see these Galapagos hawks devouring a dead baby seal. My shot of one standing alone won't upload but think you can see how different they are from the ones around our areas. I wasn't warned and didn't take my hiking poles on our first hike out to see birds, became afraid I'd fall on the large round rocks and got behind the rest of the group. After that I took one pole, and my roommates used the other one. With my camera, I couldn't have used more than one. The shore where we watched for these swallow-tailed gulls to take off was spectacular.

On the way to these birds we saw this iguana posing. 

 From the trail as we were beginning the walk to the shore birds.

See how the bird blends with the rocks--over which I didn't enjoy walking! This was our first walk with birds where the rocky paths were a challenge. The island is Plaza Sur, a small island we visited near Isla Santa Fe where we saw the hawks.

I should perhaps have blown this one up so you could fully appreciate the sight of so many of the red-orange crabs lining the rocky shore above the sea. 

And now we are on to another island--Espanola, the southernmost island of the Galapagos where birds abound--especially the waved albatrosses. Nearly all of the world's 12,000 pairs breed here. We walked through the middle of booby colonies too. And sea lions and marine iguanas make their way to the water on the beaches. 

This wonderful geyser-like eruption is made simply by the waves hitting this spot in the rocks!. Gorgeous! 

Here is a pair of waved albatrosses! There were many seeming, like this pair to pose for us. And below are boobies. The blue feet don't always show up well and some were other types of boobies. The hills were alive--literally! I was delighted no matter the rocks over which to walk!

These two are masked boobies.

A blue-footed booby is on the left, and a delighted Maggie here!

There are more bird walks and birds. However, I'm signing off for now with no promises for more Galapagos blogs. I hope at some point to write a bit about Quito. Perhaps I'll start that blog with the last bird walk on the islands. For now, I want to work on the novel!