July 13-23, 2024 with Willy Perez & local guide
The Galapagos Islands have always been a top destination for naturalists and of course birders. This tour to this magical place was stunning once again. Staying 7 nights in the confortable Nemo III and one night in Puerto Ayora gave us the chance to explore this incredible Arquipelago. We visited all the major islands for the endemics and we came across the Incredible Waved Albatross that at this time of the year had cheeks. To look for the elusive Galapagos Rail we had to adventure to the highlands of Isabela where we had a great encounter with this secretive small Crake. For most of the people, one of the highlights was watching Wedge rumped Storm Petrel colony with thousands of birds flying around and getting into the little cracks trying to avoid the Short eared Owl that was hunting there. The nesting sites of both Frigatebirds were great, we could study them properly and see the difference between each other. To see the 3 species of Boobies were eye-catching specially the Blue footed. The challenge identifying the Finches was good fun but we managed to see 14 species and several subspecies of them. The sailing between the islands were very productive too, specially for sea animals, Blue whale, Mantarray, Mola Mola and of course people who did snorkeling saw even Hammerhead Sharks.
The last day we visited the highlands of Santa Cruz and there we saw Large tree Finch and the Giant Tortoises in the wild, even had some time to walk the lava tunnel.
The most important part of the trip for me was to have a great group of people with different necessities but with the same gol, to enjoy watching these beautiful birds. Some people enjoy the Flamingos, others the Penguins, Flightless Cormorant, Swallow tailed Gull, the one only Galapagos Martin, some people even enjoyed the Finches specially the (Smedium) that came across several times… For me also a highlight was the Great blue Heron and you all know why. Overall it was a Fun birding and I would like to say thank you to all of you for coming to the Galapagos to enjoy the islands. Also thank you to our Galapagos guide Jairo for his excellent work and the all crew of the Nemo III. I Will be back soon, until then just keep birding. A big hug Willy.
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/267487
W Perez