Baltra

Baltra is a dry island with lots of grass and Holy trees. And frigate birds. This time of year is a prime nesting season for the frigates, so we saw a fair amount of mating behavior. For instance, the males will inflate a red sack in their neck and chest area when they see a desirable mate. They may do this when they are in the air or not.

At one point a female – obvious from their white bibs – few over, setting off every male in the area. I still have no idea what makes a female frigate so sexy, but apparently this one had it going on.

There are two kinds of frigate birds in the Galapagos – the Magnificent Frigate and the Great Frigate. Apparently the main difference is in the female’s white bibs.

The guys’ whiles didn’t work on that chick, but as you can see, they work on others.

Just as before, the boobies like to stand around in the path. I thought it odd that they’d be so comfortable with the frigates. Because the frigates don’t have oils in their feathers the way most sea birds do, they can’t dive into the water for their food. Instead they must either scoop it up from the surface while remaining in the air. or grab a hold of a bird like these boobies and shake them until the food comes out.

If you look closely at a lot of the rocks, you may notice little round holes. Although these are volcanic rock, the pits aren’t volcanic action. The rocks of Baltra were under water for a while. The holes are made by sea urchins.

We ran across a snake. I only saw three snakes on the whole trip. They were more exotic than sea iguana. Naturally, we ended up playing with it before wandering down the beach.

Where we ran across pelicans.

We also ran across the usual sea iguana and sea lions, but I have better pictures of them from other places.