G15: Prince Philip's Steps Hike, Genovesa Island (10/4/13 PM)

Before I get to the afternoon hike, let me tell you about the rest of the morning.

When we returned from the beach walk, Kevin and I had our second kayaking outing for the week. We kayaked from near the east end of the opening into Darwin Bay to near the beach where we spent the morning, about halfway around the edge of the caldera. We followed pretty close to the wall, watching for mostly for fish and sea lions. We also saw many red-billed tropicbirds, but I have no photos of them. You can see what one looks like here:
Red-billed tropicbird

It was a beautiful outing and I just kept marveling that we were kayaking inside an extinct volcano's caldera!

Our afternoon hike started at Prince Philip's Steps, named after the Duke of Edinburgh who visited here in the 1960s. There is a steep rock staircase with railings to get from the landing area to where we hiked. However, we had some delays in disembarking from the Zodiac because the sea lions were resting on the dock area. Clapping, yelling, and waving an orange life vest in their faces got them to move enough so some of us could disembark, but the routine had to be repeated a couple times before our whole group was off the Zodiac.

Then it was up the steps and onto the high ground.

The first area we walked through was a nesting area for Nazca and red-footed boobies. Unlike the beach area, many of the Nazca booby chicks were just hatchlings or still only eggs!

Yes, we could get quite close!

Nazca boobies lay 2 eggs about 5-7 days apart and generally both hatch. The second egg is really just insurance in case the first does not hatch or the chick dies in the first few days. If the first chick survives, it commits siblicide--it pushes the younger, smaller, weaker chick out of the nest. Exposed and unfed, it dies of cold, starvation, or as prey for other birds. The adults do not interfere.

And the Nazca boobies were also courting...

We also saw great frigate birds, red-footed boobies, and ground finches.

Great frigate bird

Red-footed booby chick

Ground finch 

But our main objective was to find short-eared owls. The short-eared owls on Genovesa Island are diurnal (active during the day). While they will sometimes seek their prey by hovering and then diving, feet first, to secure the prey in their powerful beaks, they have developed another method of hunting on Genovesa. They will frequent the nesting areas of storm petrels, sitting quietly along the lava fields and faults, ready to jump on adult or young petrels as they enter or leave their nests in the lava tubes.

We were fortunate to spot 4 of these owls, each one on the ground, waiting near an opening. Some were sleeping but the arrival of their prey wakes them immediately. Each owl were saw was closer to us.

#1--Really hard to spot and very hard to photograph clearly

#2--Our view is mostly blocked by the rocks

#3--we could get within about 12-15 feet of it

#3 

#3 

#4--Less than 5 feet from us

Here are a few other photos from our hike.

These are mature marine iguanas. Notice how they are so much smaller and less colorful than the ones we saw on some of the other islands.

Lava Cactus

Almost sunset and time to carefully make our way back down Prince Philip's Steps.

After getting back into our Zodiac, we motored slowly along the caldera wall and soon we spotted the other species of sea lion that lives in the Galápagos Islands. It is called a fur seal, but it is NOT a seal, it is a sea lion. There are a number of differences, but the easiest one is that sea lions have external ears. The fur seal's snout looks more bear-like than the other sea lions we've been seeing. Neither of these photos is very clear--it was getting dark and hard to focus, especially as the Zodiac rode the waves.

Back to the ship for the Captain's Farewell Cocktail Party and dinner, and then it was time to pack.