Saturday, April 23, 2011

The Galapagos Islands

Galapagos tortoise
Blue-footed booby
Courting frigatebirds




                          








Elliot's storm-petrel
Red-footed chick

        A dream of most nature lovers, birders, and photographers is to one day visit the Galapagos off the coast of Ecuador.  
American oystercatcher

Galapagos fur seal
Red-billed tropicbird
     Sharon and I lived this dream last month and came home with incredible memories of an incredibly beautiful and wondrous place.  We spent 8 days on board the Isabella II visiting 7 of the major islands of the archipelago  with each island offering a new assemblage of birds, reptiles, mammals, and flora. 

      During the course of the 8 days, I managed to shoot well over a thousand photos and came home with 850 after culling our the duplicates and blurry shots.  I rarely needed to use a lens of more than 200 mm as the subjects were more than willing to pose up close and natural.  
Great frigatebird

     Well, here we are back home and after a full month, I've finally got most of the shots edited and filed.  Here are several of my favorite shots of the classic Galapagos wildlife.  I should mention that our trip was arranged by Tauck Tours out of CT and they did an exceptional job.  Our guides were all native Ecuadorians with an in depth knowledge of the flora, fauna, geology, and history of the Galapagos.  
Nazca booby with chick

 It's only April, and already we have had an incredible year of birding in new vistas.  We are looking forward to a banner year!



Short-eared owl




Galapagos sunset