Equatorial Pilgrimage

On New Year's Day I set out on a little trip that was part vacation, part pilgrimage. My co-conspirator and I enlisted various modes of transportation that eventually got us to a remote archipelago in the Pacific, the Galápagos Islands. The thought in the back of my mind at the time was that on returning I could blog about each day of the trip as a post-dated travelogue. I've since revised my plans.

The pilgrimage part of the trip was to honor the memory of one of my personal heroes, Charles Darwin. For several years I've read multiple works by and about him and have come to recognize and respect him as one of the greatest scientific minds in the field of biology. In addition, I came to know him as a warm, thoughtful and humble man who cultivated lasting friendships, even with some of those who disagreed with his views, and who loved his family deeply.

While he actually spent more time on the mainland of South America where he began the investigations that eventually led to his ground-breaking theory, the Galápagos are more often associated with Darwin in the popular imagination. So it was that I was persuaded to get out of town for a change and found myself kayaking into the bay at Cerro Tejeritas on Isla San Cristóbal which was called Chatham Island at the time. Here is where The Beagle first landed in the Galápagos. I felt both excited and moved to be there. He wrote in "The Voyage of the Beagle":

"Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sun-burnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life."

But life he did find including the mockingbirds that played such a role in his discovery of natural selection and the multiple species of endemic finches that now bear his name. I've now undertaken the project of trying to put names on the ones we photographed. It isn't easy. But I get much pleasure from sorting through the hundreds of images, reliving the moments, admiring the wildlife that was so abundant and unafraid. I've got to go back, and this time with a better field guide. Just for fun I've listed all the bird species I saw in the islands and the mainland cloud forest below. The Darwin Finch identifications are tentative.

• Magnificent Frigatebird
  
• Cactus Ground Finch
  
• Blue-footed Boobie
  
• Brown Pelican
  
• Elliot's Storm Petrel
  
• Medium Ground Finch
  
• Whimbrel
  
• Ruddy Turnstone
  
• Yellow Warbler
  
• Great Blue Heron
  
• Lava Gull
  
• Chatham Mockingbird
  
• Masked Boobie
  
• Red-billed Tropicbird
  
• Gálpagos Shearwater
  
• Smooth-billed Ani
  
• Gálapagos Flycatcher
  
• Black-necked Stilt
  
• White-cheeked Pintail Duck
  
• Mangrove Finch
  
• Semipalmated Plover
  
• Greater Flamingo
  
• Purple Gallinule
  
• Common Moorhen
  
• Cattle Egret
  
• Gálapagos Hawk
  
• Gálapagos Martin
  
• Vermillion Flycatcher
  
• Brown Noddy
  
• Warbler Finch
  
• Gálapagos Penguin
  
• Gálapagos Mockingbird
  
• Striated Heron
  
• Large Tree Finch
  
• Booted Rackettail
  
• Slate-throated Whitestart
  
• Blue-winged Mountain Tanager
  
• Yellow-bellied Chat Tyrant
  
• Collared Inca
  
• Turquoise Jay
  
• White-tailled Tyrannulet
  
• Blackburnian Warbler
  
• Rufous-collared Sparrow
  
• Grey-breasted Wood-Wren
  
• Black-and-white Becard
  
• Russet-crowned Warbler
  
• Violet-tailed Sylph
  
• Swainson's Thrush
  
• Brown-capped Vireo
  
• Masked Trogon
  
• Southern Yellow or Golden-bellied Grosbeak
  
• Azara's Spinetail
  
• Green-and-black Fruiteater
  
• Plain-tailed Wren
  
• Sickle-winged Guan
  
• Buff-tailed Coronet
  
• Toucan Barbet
  
• Plate-billed Mountain Toucan
  
• Beryl-spangled Tanager
  
• Speckled Hummingbird
  
• Fawn-breasted Brilliant
  
• Masked Flower-piercer
  
• Tyrannine Woodcreeper
  
• Cinnamon Flycatcher
  
• Grass-green Tanager
  
• Gorgeted Sun Angel
  
• Chestnut-capped Brush-Finch
  
• White-tipped Dove
  
• Giant Cowbird
  
• White-throated Quail-Dove
  
• Montane Woodcreeper
  
• Common Potoo
  
• Streaked Tuftedcheek
  
• Dusky Bush-Tanager
  
• Golden Tanager
  
• Capped Conebill
  
• Glossy Black Thrush
  
• Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
  
• Andean Emerald
  
• Green-crowned Wood Nymph
  
• Green-crowned Brilliant
  
• Brown Violetear
  
• White-whiskered Hermit
  
• White-necked Jacobin
  
• Purple-throated Woodstar
  
• Thick-billed Euphonia
  
• Lemon-rumped or Flame-rumped Tanager