birding never sleeps: GALAPAGOS part 8: Floreana (18 May 2025)

Sunday, 18 May 2025

GALAPAGOS part 8: Floreana (18 May 2025)

Sunday 18 May 2025. FLOREANA. I was on deck at 06:15 to find we were anchored of Punta Cormorant having arrived overnight, little was moving on the sea. As usual breakfast was at 07:00 followed by a wet landing at 08:00, we walked past a flamingo lagoon and through scrub across a small isthmus to a beach where turtles had recently dragged themselves out of the sea to lay their eggs. Back of board at 10:00 for a panga ride or snorkeling around Devil’s Crown. The panga ride was a very frustrating experience as Champion, one of two islets off Floreana where the endemic Floreana Mockingbirds have been relocated, was clearly visible about 4km away. We could easily have gone there while the others, supported by the second panga, were snorkeling. The mockingbirds are extinct on Floreana and Champion is the only place in the world where they can be seen. Although landing is not allowed permission can be obtained to circumnavigate it by panga. We had not sought/been given this permission. I suspect the former as Darwin was quite surprised when I asked him at the start of the cruise if we had permission. Maybe some effort was then made to obtain it but if so we were unsuccessful. In contrast Birdquest managed it, having good views/photos of the mockingbird from a panga a few days after our non-visit. Human nature, unfortunate that it is, is that had I seen Floreana Mockingbird I would think about it an awful lot less than I am now and the disappointment of not being able to try will stay with me for a long time. Back on board at 11:45 for lunch at 12:00 which I skipped, three meals a day were getting rather tiring. Next up was a very touristy wet landing at Postbox Cove at 12:45 where we spent half an hour checking if any cards local to any of us had been left there. None in the bundle I checked were to anywhere in England and the whole thing seemed a rather pointless waste of time but I was still in a bad mood so it would have taken a lot to impress me! We arrived off Puerto Velazco Ibarra, the main town on Floreana, at 15:05 and a bus was waiting to take us up to Asilo de la Paz where we walked a trail for 45 minutes obtaining largely unsatisfactory views of 2 juvenile/female Medium Tree Finches and somewhat better views of at least 2 juvenile/female Small Tree Finches. We made an unscheduled stop on our way back to Puerto Velazco Ibarra where a track left the road and went through a forest patch towards Cerro Pajas. It saved the day with decent, if somewhat brief, views of a male Medium Tree Finch but it was another skin of the teeth success that could have gone badly wrong. Too little time in optimal habitat and often at the wrong time of the day seemed a continuing theme in the quest for Darwin’s Finches. Birds seen: 2 White-cheeked Pintail ducklings, 14 Galapagos Doves, 4 Smooth-billed Anis, Dark-billed Cuckoo, Black-necked Stilt, 3 Semipalmated Plovers, Hudsonian Whimbrel, 3 Ruddy Turnstones, 15 Swallow-tailed Gulls, 15 Brown Noddies, 25 American Flamingoes, 2 Red-billed Tropicbirds, 11 Elliot’s and 2 Band-rumped Storm Petrels, 60 Galapagos Shearwaters, 30 Magnificent Frigatebirds, 20 Nazca and 12 Blue-footed Boobies, 2 Brown Pelicans, 3 Lava Herons, 30 Western Cattle Egrets, Great Blue Heron, 2 Galapagos Flycatchers, 5 Mangrove Warblers, 3 Medium and 2 Small Tree Finches and 8 Small Ground Finches.

Small Ground Finch at Punta Cormorant

Galapagos Flycatcher at Punta Cormorant

Champion, home of Floreana Mockingbird. This was as close as we got in daylight, closeish but no cigar. A week later Birdquest had good views (and photos) of one while cruising around. Poor choice of tour company on my part.