Hammer time!

In the morning took a quick boat ride to a beach landing at Darwin Bay, after a five hour overnight relocation. The beach was full of male and female frigates, red footed (rare) and nazca boobies and a host of other species. Sea lions abound and show absolutely no interest in humans, apart from playing around our feet! It was then back to the boat, a change into the wetsuits and then back into the water for a swim with hammerhead and black tip reef sharks. I never imagined I would swim towards a shark! But when spotted in the murky sea everyone swims towards them for a closer look. At one stage a huge school of stingrays swam past in formation!

After (finally) a decent siesta, we were back on land (Genovesa island) to walk the Prince Phillip (yep him!) steps, to search for some short-eared Galapagos owls and more boobies! Luckily we struck gold with an owl making a kill on a storm petrel. The short-eared owl is one of few flying predators at Galapagos. Despite their small size of just 16inches, they boast an impressive wingspan close to 1 meter. Thanks Angel for the incredible photos.