Memories from Fernandina Island in the Galapagos Islands

For some reason this week I have been thinking about a past tour to the Galapagos Islands on several occasions. More specifically, the visit to Fernandina Island had been very rich in photographic opportunities. The Island is perfectly preserved and is the home of multiple very rare species. This is the favored spot for Flightless Cormorants to nest for instance…

The Flightless Cormorant is a vulnerable species that nest from July to October, mainly on Fernandina Island, in the Galapagos Islands. The female stays at the nest while the male brings presents in form of sea weed of every color to help her decorate and fortify the nest. A big part of their courting happens in the water, where they swim after each other in crazy swirls. Quite the show! In the photograph above the female is patiently waiting on top of her nest. When creating a portrait photograph a good composition if often to put the head of the subject close to one of the corners.

While creating the photograph of the Flightless cormorant above I noticed this Galapagos Hawk starting to come down from the sky with a big prey in its beak. After closer investigation, the Hawk had captured a baby marine Iguana. The bird chose a barren lava rock and went on with its meal.

In the photograph above you may see a somewhat frequent scene on Fernandina Island: a lava lizard hanging out on the head of a marine Iguana. I observed that behavior only on Fernandina Island. Note that each island of the Galapagos Islands tend to have distinct species that have evolved differently across the years based on the specificity of each island.

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Steven