Floreana Island
Today we started our day visiting the famous Post Office Barrel at Floreana Island. We dropped and picked up some post cards, which is the present day tradition among visitors. It was a long time ago when whalers and buccaneers use to be part of this system by taking the letters from Galápagos and delivered them in the countries were they were stooping. This service started back in 1793, becoming the first mail service in South America.
The Galápagos was a group of uninhabited islands during the time when the Spaniards accidentally discovered them back in 1535. During the 17th and 18th centuries they were used as a rendezvous by pirates and buccaneers. British and United States warships and whaling vessels landed frequently at the Galápagos in the 19th century. The islands were not settled until after they were annexed by Ecuador in 1832 and that happen right here in Floreana Island.
In 1835 the British naturalist Charles Darwin, traveling aboard HMS Beagle, spent five weeks studying the animal life of the Galápagos and Charles Island (now called Floreana) was the second of the four islands that he visited. His observations furnished considerable data for his Origin of Species (1859).
One of the highlights of the day was to see flamingos. It is a species called “greater flamingo” and found in lagoons and small brackish lakes. Flamingos feed on microscopic life that they strain from the water and mud with their sieve like bills. The Flamingos are birds with exceptional long legs and long, highly flexible necks. Their relationship to other birds is uncertain; some evidence allies them with the herons and ibises, some with the ducks and geese; and there is fossil evidence suggesting a relationship to shorebirds. When they feed, flamingos dip their heads under water and scoop backward with the head upside down. The edges of the bill have tiny narrow transverse plates called lamella. The large fleshy tongue pressing against the inside of the bill strains the water out through the lamellae, leaving behind the small invertebrates and the vegetable matter upon which the bird feeds.
As we were right in situ, a group of four flamingos arrived to the lagoon. It was a nice display of their bright pink feathers and their black primary feathers that are usually not visible unless that they are flying.
Today we started our day visiting the famous Post Office Barrel at Floreana Island. We dropped and picked up some post cards, which is the present day tradition among visitors. It was a long time ago when whalers and buccaneers use to be part of this system by taking the letters from Galápagos and delivered them in the countries were they were stooping. This service started back in 1793, becoming the first mail service in South America.
The Galápagos was a group of uninhabited islands during the time when the Spaniards accidentally discovered them back in 1535. During the 17th and 18th centuries they were used as a rendezvous by pirates and buccaneers. British and United States warships and whaling vessels landed frequently at the Galápagos in the 19th century. The islands were not settled until after they were annexed by Ecuador in 1832 and that happen right here in Floreana Island.
In 1835 the British naturalist Charles Darwin, traveling aboard HMS Beagle, spent five weeks studying the animal life of the Galápagos and Charles Island (now called Floreana) was the second of the four islands that he visited. His observations furnished considerable data for his Origin of Species (1859).
One of the highlights of the day was to see flamingos. It is a species called “greater flamingo” and found in lagoons and small brackish lakes. Flamingos feed on microscopic life that they strain from the water and mud with their sieve like bills. The Flamingos are birds with exceptional long legs and long, highly flexible necks. Their relationship to other birds is uncertain; some evidence allies them with the herons and ibises, some with the ducks and geese; and there is fossil evidence suggesting a relationship to shorebirds. When they feed, flamingos dip their heads under water and scoop backward with the head upside down. The edges of the bill have tiny narrow transverse plates called lamella. The large fleshy tongue pressing against the inside of the bill strains the water out through the lamellae, leaving behind the small invertebrates and the vegetable matter upon which the bird feeds.
As we were right in situ, a group of four flamingos arrived to the lagoon. It was a nice display of their bright pink feathers and their black primary feathers that are usually not visible unless that they are flying.
