On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!
Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com
Have a wonderful day and weekend; enjoy the pictures!
Today, pictures from valued commenter Albatrossity.
Our time in Ecuador continued with some days in the Galápagos Archipelago. We visited tow of the easternmost (therefore oldest) islands, San Cristobal (aka Chatham) and Española (aka Hood). San Cristobal is a populated island and the home of the Galápagos provincial capital, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno; Espanola is smaller and uninhabited. I’ll send Alain 2 sets of five pictures from San Cristobal, and then some from Española. Enjoy!
Taken on 2019-05-30 00:00:00
San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
This is a San Cristobal (Chatham) Mockingbird, one of the endemic species that helped Darwin think about evolution on these islands. Even when still on the Beagle, he recognized that birds from different islands were different, and that helped him break out of any notions based on the Biblical creation story. As you may know, the finches were not identified as species of related finches until he got back to England and turned those specimens over to John Gould.
Taken on 2019-05-30 00:00:00
San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
The marine iguana is also one of the iconic endemic species of the Galápagos. This youngster was hanging out on the breakwater rocks in the harbor of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. I’m currently using this image as the wallpaper background on my computer monitor!
Taken on 2019-05-30 00:00:00
San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
The Galápagos Flycatcher is a smaller version of the Myiarchus flycatchers (e.g. Great-crested Flycatcher, Ashy-throated Flycatcher, etc.) found in North America. It is pretty common, allegedly, but this is the first and only one that I have seen, on my fourth trip to these islands.
Taken on 2019-05-30 00:00:00
San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
A male Medium Ground-finch posing for a portrait. San Cristobal has several of the species of Darwin’s finches, but this is certainly one of the more common ones.
Taken on 2019-05-30 00:00:00
San Cristobal Island, Galápagos
One of the best places on this island is a remote beach near Cerro Brujo, a cinder cone on the north side. The water is gorgeous, and the birdlife is spectacular. Here a Brown Pelican dives into the bay, where it successfully caught a fish and avoided maiming the guy on the boat.
Thank you so much Albatrossity, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
Once again, to submit pictures: Use the Form
With the upcoming site redesign, there will be many changes and so email submissions are over for now. Once it happens – in weeks, I imagine, there will be a slight interruption while we sort things out. So if you’re sitting on some pictures, now’s the time to submit them, using the form.
JPL
Oh my, the pelican was hungry.
Alain
Sorry for the delayed post this morning. It was scheduled and for the first time, WordPress had a scheduling error and didn’t post it.
OzarkHillbilly
This Albatrossity.channel is great, educational and entertaining.
biff murphy
Great pics, love the last one, good catch!
Sab
Brown pelicans in Galapagos? I thought they were North American birds living in the Gulf. Same birds?
That young iguana looks like he/she has an old soul. Probably just hungry.
Mary G
WOW for the pelican pic. The Galapagos are on my bucket list. Lucky Albatrossity to get to go fourtimes!
Sab
I have a Japanese print of a greenish finch by Bakufu Ohno that my Dad bought in his youth. I love it. Goegeous little green bird jumping around some iris.
I asked my Chinese BIL what was that bird. He laughed and said he could guess its name in two Chinese dialects and in Japanese but he didn’t know the English name and doubted that there was one.
Sab
@Mary G: Some things in the world are good that Albatrossity gets many trips to the Galapagos with his knowledge and his camera when others of us just want to go. It’s on my bucket list also, but I would give up my place to him every time.
mrmoshpotato
@JPL:
Yes. It ate that guy and avoided maiming a fish.
Makes perfect sense that the Galápagos Islands are the home of the Philly Phanatic and the rest of the Galápagos Gang, including Clammy Sosa who is a man-eater (there’s video).
arrieve
That pelican picture is spectacular! I have been to the Galapagos, and would love to go back. One of my favorite memories is sitting on a beach and having one of the mockingbirds land on my lap. They have no fear of humans. It’s like being in the Garden of Eden.
pinacacci
holy shit those are some amazing photos! Iguana and pelican particularly. Keep traveling and sharing, please!
Also I find it interesting how exaggerated differences become (beaks, body size). Galapagos islands = nature’s lab
Amir Khalid
The pelican must have startled the guy in the boat when he hit the water.
TomatoQueen
Oh that Beaky Finch! And all the others; Galapagos is nature’s treasure house. Recommend a lovely, erudite book about how we understand evolution, called sure enough The Beak of the Finch, by Jonathan Weiner, pub 1994 and a 20th anniversary online edition too, makes me want to land on Galapagos and sit forever under a tree with a tortoise.
rikyrah
these pictures are gorgeous :)
J R in WV
Albatrossity is a gift to the B-J site.
The pelican is yards this side of those boats, or else the size of a whale… no doubt a great splash when he landed!
I too was used to seeing brown pelicans in the US, until I was in SW Wyoming on the Green River and saw pure white pelicans, gorgeous birds! Wish they were everywhere, so pretty. White, white!!
Albatrossity
@Sab: No, you need to get to the Galapagos and see these things for yourself. I’ve just been lucky to teach a university Study Abroad class that gets enough students in enough years to make the trip viable. And I can tell you that there is nothing like the look on a student’s face when the plane lands and they actually are there for the very first time! It’s special.
And yes, the pelican landed about 30-40 ft from the boat guy, who paid no attention to it. That image benefits from the foreshortening that comes from a long lens. But while swimming in that very bay I have had a Blue-footed Booby knife into the water about 3-4 ft from me, and that was startling. Unlike the pelicans, they make hardly any splash, but they do make some noise. Brown Pelicans are found in lots of places in both North and South America; I’ve seen them near the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic side of the South American continent. The Galapagos subspecies is more colorful than some of the others, but they are all amazing to watch.
There are more iguana and more pelican pics in the other batches that I sent, so stay tuned. And if any jackal wants to use any of these as wallpaper on their computer monitor, send me a message (grosbeak57 at gmail dot com), tell me what image and also tell me your monitor resolution data, and I’d be happy to generate a file to send to you.