Day off!

On Tuesday, all of the teachers were given a day off, and we deserved it! No meetings to attend, no presentations, nothing! So what did I do? Fill my day with as much wildlife viewing as possible! I am trying to capture enough video footage for you to create Galapagos wildlife documentaries. (We'll talk more about that later!)

I think I have enough footage of sea lions and marine iguanas, but I was still lacking bird footage, particularly boobies and frigate birds. To cover as much of the island as possible, three of us hired a taxi driver. Our first stop was Loberia las Negritas. We jumped out of the truck and started our first hike. Sea lions covered the beach and marine iguanas covered the lava rocks. Boobies and frigates were also soaring overhead, but I wanted to see them on land, and see lots of them!



We continued our hike to a sea cliff. From a distance we saw a few boobies perched on the rocks. As we got closer, we realized we also found a small colony of swallow-tailed gulls. This was a great find! You may be thinking that sea gulls are no big deal, but this one sure is. It is the only nocturnal gull in the world, meaning they are the only gulls that are active in the night. I also found out an interesting fact about them. When the male is courting the female, he regurgitates food for her! What do you think about that girls?!



A couple of boobies were in the area, but not enough to write home about. We soon hiked back to the vehicle.

Our next stop was to Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado, a tortoise sanctuary. This place provided a natural habitat for about 60 San Cristobal tortoises. This is a different species then we had seen on the island of Santa Cruz. I got some good footage. This will be useful to compare and contrast the differences in the tortoises’ shells.

Then we headed to Playa de Puerto Chino on the other side of the island. We walked along a beautiful beach and hiked up onto a sea cliff. There was a brown pelican on a nest of eggs, and a couple of blue-foots here and there. From the sea cliff we were able to see some sea turtles. I believe they were Pacific green turtles. Apparently these turtles used to be hunted, but hunting of them was banned, and the population is doing well today.



The day was winding down, and there was one more place we wanted to hike: Frigatebird Hill. To this point, I had only seen the frigate bird in flight. When we got to the top, we were able to see about fifty frigate birds perched in the trees. We were able to get really close to them. Unfortunately, none of the males had their throats inflated, however, the picture below shows the male's red flap of skin that inflates. This was a little disheartening, but I got my footage of frigate birds for you! We snapped our last photo of the day at the Charles Darwin statue that rests on Frigatebird Hill.



So my day off was very busy, but also well spent. I could use another couple of weeks here on the islands!

Consumers, Producers, and Decomposers of the Galapagos

Since we have a quiz tomorrow on the consumers, producers, and decomposers, I thought this would be an appropriate time to ask these questions. What kind of consumers, producers, and decomposers are there on the Galapagos? Is there a lot of predation? Are there lots of endangered animals or extinct animals on the island? Are there lots of food webs and food chains? And are the blue-footed boobies preyed on a lot? And what kind of consumers are they… Herbivores? Carnivores? Or are they omnivores?

Rachel pd. 2

Great questions, Rachel! We will be addressing the organisms in the Galapagos food web, so I don't want to give it all away! However, to prepare for the quiz, understand the terms and their meanings. Producers "produce" their own food using the sun's energy. Plants are producers, and the process in which they make their own food is called photosynthesis. Consumers "consume" plants or other consumers. The blue-footed booby is a consumer because it eats fish, and fish are consumers. Decomposers are found everywhere. They are the bacteria and fungi that break down dead organisms. The Galapagos tortoise feeds on plants (producers), so what type of consumer is it? If blue-footed boobies eat only fish, what type of feeder are they?

Good luck on the quiz, Rachel!

Fishy Names!

Hey, it's Stacey from Pd. 5! I wanted to wish you the best in everything and hopefully you are learning a lot and having fun! Well I've been looking over what you wrote about the types of fish you wrote in Spanish ("Fishing, Anyone?" posted by Elijah on October 9th). Well, one thing for sure...carabale is one fish I couldn't identify because people from different places say each thing differently. So my parents weren't sure if you spelled it correctly or meant something else. Moving on to the other fish you mentioned, loros mean parrots so it must mean they look like one and sapatillas means sneakers, so I’m not sure with that translation. Lastly, roncadores mean MONKEYS!!! But my parents told me that since you were talking about types of fish, then it might have to do with the Spanish people naming the way fish make noises just like the monkeys! Before I finish, the name of Puerto Baquerizo Morela has a meaning too. Well only Puerto does. My dad says its a seaport, but Baqueriza Morela doesn’t mean anything. It must be named after someone by last or first name.

I hope you enjoy the trip and hopefully this information is useful....cya soon!!!

Thanks for the Spanish lesson, Stacey. When I was posting the response to Elijah's question, I was in an Internet cafe. I asked the owner to spell the fish names for me. I don't know if they are spelled correctly or not. I need to learn Spanish!

When I was hiking on a beach yesterday, I found a dead fish. I took a picture of it because it had a mouth that looked like a parrot's beak. It must have been the loros! I posted a picture below. What do you think? Thanks for the information!

Three Boobies

Hey, Ms. Barrett. It's Alexa G. from period 2.

Earlier you mentioned that there were three different types of boobies (blue-footed, red-footed and the masked booby). I was wondering if there are any differences between them besides their appearance.

Alexa, the three species of boobies have a great deal in common because they are all in the same genus. (I am referring to their classification...domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.) Since they have almost all of the levels of classification in common, they are extremely similar. However, there are some differences. One example is their nesting behavior. Blue-foots nest on the ground, red-foots in small trees and shrubs, and masked boobies nest on cliffs or near the edge of the sea. I just found out on this trip that the masked boobies found in the Galapagos are now called Nazca boobies. Can someone tell me why their name was recently changed, and where the name came from?

Thanks for the question, Alexa!

Sea Lions of San Cristobal

I made a video clip about the sea lions on the island of San Cristobal. The video doesn't get into the natural history of the sea lions, so I'll give you a little bit of information here.

Sea lions are actually the largest animals on the Galapagos Islands. The estimated population is 50,000. These animals are very playful and inquisitive. I have spent hours watching them lounge on the beaches and lava rocks and play in the water. The male sea lions have a harem, with one bull (the male) with up to thirty cows (the females). The males will defend their territory by barking, posturing, pushing, and biting.

We have a videographer with us on our trip, documenting the program for Toyota. He was telling us about when he one time was swimming near sea lions, when one of the sea lions bit him on the butt! The sea lion's teeth when through his wet suit and punctured his skin! So in addition to be playful and inquisitive, they can also be aggressive.

http://www.mtlaurelschools.org/mbmovie5

Funding from Toyota

Rhonda Glasscock, the Corporate Contributions Manager for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., is with us on this trip. It has been a pleasure traveling with Rhonda, and I sincerely appreciate the funding I received from her organization. Thanks, Rhonda, and thanks, Toyota!

http://www.mtlaurelschools.org/mbmovie4