27 June 2008: The Isabela island of Galapagos is a place where we really enjoyed the wonderful landscape and varied wildlife.

Black volcanic lava meets the sea

 

A Lava Lizard peering out from a rock

 A Yellow Warbler at the seashore

Marine Iguanas are cold-blooded, thus they need to sun themselves on the rocks.  When you observe them closely, you’ll notice that they spit once every few minutes! They spit out brine through their nostrils, not mouth, and that’s how they get rid of the excess salt from their bodies.

 Colonies of marine iguanas on the black lava rocks

 

 The beach

 Pedro at the beach

The Ghost Crab (Ocypode gaudichaudii) is the most numerous crab on the beach. Its eyes are on stalks which are raised when the crab is out in the open, and lowered into the carapace in their burrows.

The beach is full of ghost crabs, but it is difficult to see them especially up close since they would quickly scurry back into their burrows when you approach them.

A ghost crab digging out sand to make a burrow

 Marine Iguanas

American Oystercatcher (Haematopus palliatus galapagensis)

 Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus hudsonicus)

 Since it was the ‘garua’ season, the sky was always full of heavy clouds

In the distance is Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island)

Black lava rocks of Galapagos

Vegetation near the beach

A ‘road’

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Ecuador, Galapagos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.