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Galapagos is famous for its "finches" (now known to be tanagers); they helped to inspire Darwin's theory of evolution. This one is the endemic Small Ground-Finch. Photo by participant Sid England.

Whilst writing this trip list, a lot of stunning memories came to mind. I remember as a young person wondering what the Galapagos Islands were going to be like. After reading books, watching videos, and so forth, you feel like you'll go there once and that's it. Many years and many visits later, I still think that these islands are stuck in time. It's still true that this place is magic, weird, and bizarre -- as you can see when you're there, watching the incredible landscape and animals. Some places are covered with black lava, other places have giant daisies, or many different cacti; even the introduced species look strange there.

But when you see the combination of animals adapted to this environment, it's a bit crazy: giant tortoises that have different shells depending on which island they inhabit, iguanas that survive in salty water and dive several meters deep to eat, penguins in the Northern hemisphere, nocturnal gulls, cormorants that can't fly, and Darwin's "finches", with bills that are constantly evolving... All of this sounds like a fantasy, but the reality is that you were there and you witnessed it -- saw and visited one of the most spectacular places on the planet! As we whizzed around the islands, we saw an incredible number of the places and wildlife that the books and videos tell you about. Our group's list of favorites included Paint-billed Crake, Yellow Warbler, Nazca and Blue-footed boobies, Red-billed Tropicbirds, even a Brown Pelican. Finches were popular, with the Mangrove Finch providing a nice surprise. Swallow-tailed Gulls showed what they are capable of; the ones feeding their chicks with squid on Genovesa were admired by many of us. Inquisitive mockingbirds were incredible, especially the Espanola Mockingbirds that came to catch flies and check our group for water sources (with no luck). Many of you decided that the Waved Albatrosses were most impressive, simply because of their looks and behavior. For me, the biggest surprise was how calm the Pacific Ocean was. The Nemo III was comfortable, but even more importantly, it took us to the places to make our adventure a success. So thank you to our captain (Henry) and the crew, who all did a great job. Thanks also to William, our local guide, who helped us with a lot of information about the Galapagos.

And as you know, without you, this adventure would not have happened at all, so the biggest thank you goes to all of you for deciding to visit the Islas Encantadas (Enchanted Islands) and for joining us on this trip. I had a great time and hope that you did too. I am sure that you will remember those Darwin's "finches" for a long time!

A big hug,

-- Willy

KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

The birds were not the only amazing things that we saw. The water gave us the opportunity to see other stunning creatures to. Here are some that deserve to be mentioned and I'm sure you will remember:

King Angelfish

Panamic sergeant major

Rainbow wrasse

Bullseye puffer

Yellow-tailed damsel fish

Bumphead parrotfish

Bicolor parrotfish

Bluechin parrotfish

Azure parrotfish

Yellow-tailed surgeonfish

Moorish idol

Yellow-tailed mullet

Black-striped salema

Yellow-finned tuna

Blacktip shark

Manta ray

Sting ray

Finally a fantastic group of Spotted eagle ray

Totals for the tour: 92 bird taxa and 3 mammal taxa