A Lesson from the Albatross

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This post will be a little shorter- I am going to try to post more often, with shorter entries.  

One of the highlights among the birds in the Galapagos is the Waved Albatross (Phoebastria irrorata), the largest bird in the archipelago (though a relatively small albatross.  They are generally only visible on and around the island of Espanola (which is one of the older islands, to the east of the archipelago).  I did, however, get extremely lucky and see one off San Cristobal (which is to the north of Espanola)- this was my first albatross sighting of the trip, and, since no one else saw it, a real treat: 

An albatross away from its nesting site

Normally, we see them on Espanola, near Suarez point, which is one of the very few spots in the world where the albies nest (all of the nesting sites are on Espanola).  There, the adults return to do their famous mating song and dance, and to mate, and lay an egg, which they roll around regularly until it hatches.  Then they take turns feeding the rapidly growing chick until December-January, when the babies fledge and head for the sea. This makes seeing them in January (when I bring students for Winter Term) a hit-or-miss proposition.  I've always seen at least one, but it's sometimes a last remaining juvenile not yet willing to take the leap of faith. 

As with so many young animals, they go through a pretty awkward stage.  Here, for example, is a young albatross who appears to be fond of “Weird Al” Yancovic (or perhaps the Mona Lisa). 

Nice 'do

In the picture above, you can also see the bird’s nostril, which, in addition to being handy for breathing through, is the final output of the famous albatross nasal salt glands.  These are similar to the glands in the marine iguana- salt is actively transported out of the blood in these glands, resulting in a very salty secretion that resembles tears.  These glands allow the birds (and some reptiles) to rehydrate by drinking seawater, something any shipwreck movie fan knows is a big no-no for humans (and most mammals).  Our kidneys, which are the means by which we regulate salt, are not up to the task- drinking seawater causes a person to dehydrate. 

Here’s one more of these amazing birds:

Birds Gotta Swim

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Birds Gotta Swim, Fish Gotta Fly

Truth in Advertising:  there are not pictures of flying fish in this segment.  Capturing flying fish on a digital camera is tough, well beyond my abilities.  We did, however see them on several occasions.  It turns out they’re pretty common.  And why they fly is still speculative- the two leading hypotheses are predator escape and energetic savings, hard as that may be to believe. 

But the real topic for today is flightless birds.  There are two species of flightless birds in Galápagos:  the Galapagos Penguin (Spheniscus mendiculus) and the Flightless Cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi).  Donna and I were fortunate enough to see both on our trip. 

A Penguin and a Sea Lion facing off.  From Santiago Island in 2010.

The Penguin is one of the most popular residents of the Galapagos- it is, after all, pretty startling to see penguins on the equator.  The Galapagos Penguin is in fact the only one that lives north of the equator (though we only saw them when south of the equator).  There are about 5000 of them, which is a pretty small number, spread out through the central and western islands. 

They're even in church windows

The most probable place for people to see them is around Bartolome, off Santiago Island- there is a resident colony there, and I’ve seen them there pretty much every time I’ve had the chance.  But they can also be seen near Floreana (I know because of this photo from 2010), around much of Santiago, and Isabela. 

Penguin off Floreana.  Also from 2010.

And when you go around Isabela, to the West, toward Fernandina- that’s when the flightless bird part takes off (sorry)! 

The western side of Isabela is the “cold” side, in terms of the water- the Cromwell current pushes in from the West, and brings in cold, cold water.  This water may be less-than-fun to swim in for normal people, but it brings nutrients that form the base of a pretty spectacular food web, and results in these waters being a wonderful place to see marine life. 

This trip was the first time I’d had the chance to see this part of the Galapagos- for the first week and a bit, we were going to places I’d been before, or at least very similar.  This area was what I had been waiting for (see earlier post on Fernandina). 

Our first stop after heading past Puerto Villamil (the town on Isabela), was Elizabeth Bay.  The National Park is pretty strict about what you can do where- some places you can hike, some you can snorkel, some you can only ride in the pangas and look.  Elizabeth bay was this latter type- but was such a great place  for seeing the birds (and also sea turtles), that it was totally worth it.  There were many, many seabirds there, including the two flightless stars.    The photo at the top of this entry gives you the idea.  Close examination of the shot will reveal at least 5 species of birds- blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, frigatebirds (probably magnificent frigatebirds), penguins and cormorants.  After spending a lot of time looking at this small rock full of birds, we cruised around to see what other opportunities would present themselves. 

I didn’t notice until later that one of the first penguins we saw, on the rock, was bloody- I do not know why.

2 Penguins and a couple of Blue-footed Boobies

The penguins were good at finding any small bit of rock to rest on when they wanted a break from swimming

Not that they were slouches at swimming (more in a moment)

The surreality of the situation, equatorial penguins, was driven home by seeing them among the red mangroves that helped define the bay. 

Here's a little video of a penguin swimming, off Santiago:  

Enough about the penguins for now.  The other flightless bird, and the one I’d been really anticipating seeing, was the flightless cormorant, and to see them, you have to do west of isabela.  This is the only place these birds are found, in the world.  Recall, I mentioned them on Fernandina: 

Before we see them, a word about cormorants in general.

Below is a photo from Alaska this summer.  There are two species shown here- the Pelagic Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pelagicus) and the Red-Faced Cormorant (Phalacrocorax urile). 

The thing that’s interesting about cormorants (okay, one thing) is that, although they are seabirds, their feathers are not completely waterproof.  A Booby, or a Pelican, for example, can spend all day diving into the water, then taking off from the surface and diving again and again (pics later).  But cormorants, and their somewhat close relative the anhinga (Anhinga anhinga), get waterlogged (the less waterproof feathers do in fact confer some advantage- they decrease buoyancy, allowing the bird to stay under water more easily). 

As a result, cormorants and anhingas, after spending time in the water, need to spend time sunning so that their wings dry enough for flight.  Here are a couple examples- the first is a cormorant from Alaska, and the second an anhinga, from Florida this past November. 

The anhinga at least is also probably warming up a bit.  Now, remember this part- they sun themselves to dry their wings so that they can fly.  Also look at the wings.- nice, hmm? 

Now, the Flightless cormorant of the Galapagos.  Note the first word- flightless.  These birds have lost the ability to fly- a reasonably common evolutionary change in birds when predators are absent, as on islands.  They make their living by swimming, both at the surface and diving under water (I couldn’t get a pic of this- they’re really fast). 

They’re very picturesque, and have long thin necks.  They also have a surprising deep moo-ing voice. 

But the last of the above picture begins to show the weird, wild thing.  Check the cormorant’s pose.  Look familiar?

That’s right, this cormorant is holding out its wings to dry them.  First, check out the wings- not as impressive as his/her Alaskan relatives are they?  This is typical in flightless birds- the old “use it or lose it” concept.  If maintaining wings, with their attendant muscles, bone, nerves, etc, costs energy (and it does), and they’re not being used, the individuals who have cheaper (less developed) wings have an advantage in energy savings.  And if the under-development is genetic, they can pass this trait on to their offspring, who also have the advantage.  Over generations, the wings of the flightless population atrophy to the point seen in the pictures below. 

But the birds still go through the motions of drying their wings, despite the fact that they’re never going to fly!  (I admit, they probably also do warm up a little, but these atrophied wings are also a lot less effective as solar panels than the ones in the Alaska cormorants and the anhinga). 

I love that- a near-vestigial organ (the wings), and what appears to be a vestigial behavior as well.  

The end?

Cuenca Culture(s)

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Cuenca Culture

Donna and I are currently taking a 4-hour Spanish lesson on M, W, F, and I also have an hour-long charango lesson MWF.  That’s 5 hours of class time, and there’s also practice/review time, or supposed to be.  I am doing better with practicing music than with reviewing Spanish, unless you count watching TV shows with Spanish subtitles.  This makes M, W, F pretty busy.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are more laid back. 

Yesterday we were out and walking around, and in addition to a little time at the big museum here (later) we passed a smallish historical/archeological site, El Museo Manuel Augustín Landivar.  This Museo is dedicated to a small (one city lot) site called the Vestigios de Todos Los Santos.  The site was discovered/dedicated in the early seventies, when relics were found during a construction project.  The site itself contains relics from three different cultures here in Cuenca:  The colonial Spanish period, the Inca period and the Cañari period/culture.  The site itself appears to have been dedicated for much of the time to mill-work, as recently as 1902: 

 

But even during the colonial period, it was a mill: 

And some of this, at least is owing to aqueducts built by the Inca.  Here’s one of their walls, with some neat niches.

But even the Inca were latecomers to the area- the “original” (for now) human inhabitants were the Cañari.  One of their walls remains in this place: 

There are more remains at the big museum, but I need to get the pics organized for that!  Until then, here are some llamas doing there part to keep one of the building ruins free of weeds: 

The evening was dedicated to a concert by the Cuenca Youth Orchestra.  They played at the Old Cathedral, which is now a museum, and a pretty classy place for an orchestra: 

Here’s a closer pic during setup.  Please try to look closely toward the back.  There were several guys there who were older than the youths.  I hear the fellow in the center, in the red robe, plays divinely. 

And here’s the group, ready to play. 

The program for this evening was Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola (involving 2 “ringer” soloists), and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7.  Mozart is not my favorite, but I enjoyed the Beethoven, and would have done so more had I not been distracted partway through by the person who had a smallish harp, but left in the middle of the concert….

Fernandina Island- Day of the Iguana(s)

One of the most frequent questions I get about the Galápagos is along the lines of “What is your favorite [place/animal/thing]?”^*  I’ve pretty much always been at a loss for an answer- there’s simply so much wonderful-ness to have a favorite. 

But this time, although there were lots of exciting new places, I did, finally, find a favorite.  Two actually.  One for the land things, and one for the marine.  This entry is about the land site:  Fernandina Island, which we visited in the afternoon of December 7^th, 2012. 

Fernandina Island, seen as we approached from Isabela

Fernandina is the youngest of the genuine Galápagos islands (there’s a younger proto-island), farthest to the west of the archipelago.  The volcano that formed it, Volcan Cumbre, is still quite active, having last erupted in 2009 (and yes, I was hoping for some activity while we were nearby, but no dice).  The area open to tourists is Punta Espinosa, shown in diagram form here from Wildlife of the Galápagos, Fitter, Fitter, and Hosking, Princeton University Press, 2002: 

Schematic of the Fernandina site open to visitors.

            We arrived by panga/dinghy and landed on the lava rock in a little shallow lagoon- a semi-dry landing.  Fernandina immediately became my favorite island.  Why?  5 words:  Hordes. Of. Huge. Marine. Iguanas.  I mean, lots of them, all over the place.  Fernandina boasts the largest marine iguanas in the Galápagos- I knew that, but I was not prepared for the sheer number of large (1.5 meters, maybe more) ocean-going reptiles. 

For those who  have not heard, the Galápagos Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) is the only true marine lizard, and is found only in the Galápagos.  They swim by tucking their limbs close to their bodies, and undulate their tail, which is compressed vertically to act as a paddle. 

Swimming marine iguanas.  The crabs in the foreground are called Sally Lightfoot Crabs (Graspus graspus).  There is also a marine turtle underwater, between the left-hand crab and the upper iguana.  It is probably a green sea turtle.

Their food is marine algae, which they eat either from rocks in the intertidal zone or while underwater (more on this in another entry, when I have pics to show).  To eat underwater, they cling to the rocks with an impressive set of claws, which also allow the smaller ones to climb pretty sheer vertical cliff faces: 

The forefoot of a marine iguana.  The claws make them very good climbers.  Donna and I watched a 25-cm specimen climb up a vertical wall pretty much as fast as it could walk across a flat surface.

Feeding underwater has a pretty big cost- the water is cold, and marine iguanas are ectotherms- every second they’re in the water, they lose body heat, and are in danger of becoming immobile.  In order to feed at depth (a stunt only the larger iguanas can get away with), they need to soak up some heat from the sun beforehand, so they spend a lot of time on the rocks, facing into the sun, getting warm

He looks thoughtful, but really he's just sunbathing.  Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago, is in the background. 

Marine iguanas catching some sun.  These guys are actually a little blacker than they look- the black lizard/black rock motif plays hob with a camera's white balance. 

They also bundle together at night, in heartwarming displays that range from cute couples scenes

If I ever do a Christmas card, this is likely to be the picture.

To piles of dozens of iguanas

A whole bunch of huddling iguanas.  Isabela in the background again.

Huddling together decreases surface area to volume, meaning that they lose less heat overnight (I had to slip this in). 

The sheer quantity of marine iguanas, swimming, sunning, huddling, snorting (they excrete salt near their nostrils, and “sneeze” it out periodically to clear the nostrils or for a territorial display) made this island a highlight for me.  But lest you think Fernandina is only about the iguanas, I’ll mention that there are also the obligatory sea lions...

Three iguanas and a youngish sea lion

More iguanas and a sea lion.  There were, in fact, several sea lions, but I was pretty sick of them by this point.

...as well as another lizard species, the lava lizard (Microlophus sp.), which get along fine with the iguanas:

Distant relatives

And grow to unusual size here, although you cannot tell from this photo, because I forgot to include a scale.  This fellow was upward of 25 cm

A largish lava lizard

There were also a few Galápagos Hawks (Buteo galapagoensis).  I was particularly happy about seeing this guy, because I spotted him before our guide

And apparently, the hawks are concerned about their numbers on the island, and working to increase it

Love was (almost) in the air.  Or at least perched precariously on a branch.

The hawks probably made these Galápagos doves (Zenaida galapagoensis), another endemic species, nervous.  I was really hoping to get a pic of exactly 2, for a “Twelve Days of Christmas” thing.

Another big, exciting moment was seeing the Flightless Cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi)- I’ll say more about them later, but here, they were nesting. 

A nesting flightless cormorant

A closer look at the nest indicates that the cormorants subscribe to the Davy Jones (the one from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies) school of home furnishings.  The nest is made of ocean products- seaweeds, sea urchins, and the like.  I guess when you nest in lava fields, there aren’t a lot of options

Closer view of the cormorant, and its eclectic approach to nest-building

Lest I ignore the plants (and I don’t mean to, but there’s not a lot of plant life on a lava field), Fernandina was also home to one of my favorite Galápagos plants, the Lava Cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus), which is a very cool colonizer of the lava.

Several lava cacti

That’s Isabela in the background, incidentally- more on it soon.  The lava cacti are just really neat- slow growing and determined.  There are some scattered around the islands- on Bartolome, Genovesa, and Santiago for certain.  But here was one of the largest colonies I’ve seen.  And it looks like more to come:

Cute little spiky baby cactus!

This was also where I saw my first large whale while here, but it wasn’t in good shape: 

B(l)eached whale skeleton.  You can also see the mangroves in the background and then the highlands of Fernandina, where we did not go. 

I didn’t take a picture closer up, because on closer examination it was pretty clearly a chimera- the head did not match the rest of the body.  I suspect some visitors and guides did some rearranging (piling up of bones and rearranging them happens regularly here).  Later that day, while sailing we did see a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutrostrata probably), and even saw it breaching, but I couldn’t get a photo of it. 

So that’s Fernandina- remote, pretty barren along the beach, and full of lizards.  Here are a couple last pics of them: 

One more iguana- and a couple of chitons in the water

Farewell Fernandina, until next time!

^*The most-often asked question is “Wow- do you need someone to carry your bags?”  Really.