This morning we set out bright and early for a hike at Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill) on the northwestern coast of Santa Cruz. (I don't have a photo of Cerro Dragon, but we climbed it. From a distance, it looks like a land iguana--the "dragon"--but it didn't show up well when I photographed it.)
Our landing site for today's hike
View of offshore islets from the landing site
The volcanic origins of the islands is evident in the rocks
This is not Cerro Dragon, but a nearby hill. The trails you see were made by mules. The National Park is working to eliminate them from the island.
Sea lion checks us out.
Marine iguana--one of the few times we saw one in the water!
Black-necked stilt
Our first land iguana in the wild--sleeping in the middle of the trail! We walked past him very carefully.
Before heading off into the dry interior, we stopped at a small lagoon to watch the activity there.
Galápagos pintails
Marine Iguana
Semi-palmated plover
We saw a number of land iguanas. Unlike the marine iguanas, who are social and often bask together on the rocks, the land iguanas tend to be solitary. They den underground at night to conserve body temperature and emerge in the daytime to "recharge".
The land iguanas were quite stationary, for the most part, but then this one took off.
We also spotted a cactus finch ("common" cactus finch, to distinguish it from the large cactus finch found on some other islands in the archipelago). This is one of the famous Darwin finches.
On our way back to the landing site, there were a number of other photo opportunities.
Blooming prickly pear cactus
Wind-damaged prickly pear cactus
Offshore islets
This is the trail we climbed up from the landing site
Looking toward the highlands (where we saw the tortoises yesterday)
Can you tell we are enjoying our expedition?
Skin shed by a land iguana
We stopped at a brackish lagoon and there we observed a lone greater flamingo feeding.
A little hard to see, but these are the "trails" left by the flamingo's feeding activity.
And a few animals by the shore as we waited for the Zodiacs to pick us up.
Great blue heron (not all creatures in the Galápagos are only found there!)
Whimbrel
Marine Iguana (good sized but no green or red color on this adult)
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