One of the stranger sights in the Isla Santa Cruz town of Puerto Ayora is at the Charles Darwin Research Station. It is not one of the many living tortoises living there but a nonliving piece of taxidermy.
There is one tortoise that was a world wide celebrity, his passing was covered around the world. He is an endling, the very last of his subspecies, Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii. His name is Solitario George (Lonesome George).
George was found in 1971 on the small island of Isla Pinta (23 square miles). The island’s vegetation had been decimated by introduced feral goats. He was the last of his subspecies ever found and moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz.
The research station preserves and breeds giants tortoises and works on conservation to protect their habitats around the Galapagos.
A young tortoise breed at the center will one day be released to its home island.
George lived at the center for 40 years, being cared for by Fausto Llerena. Being the last of his kind, he was a popular attraction at the center.
After George was found dead, he was sent to New York to be preserved by the Museum of Natural History.
He was then sent back to Ecuador where there was a fight as to where he would be displayed: Quito or the Galápagos. In the end, the Galápagos won and George is now on Isla Santa Cruz.
“It is a hideous-looking creature, of dirty black colour, stupid and sluggish in its movements”
–Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle
While there is much attention and focus on the endemic avian fauna of the Galápagos we should not forget the unique reptiles of the Enchanted Islands.
One of the reptiles that I was really looking forward to seeing was the world’s only aquatic lizard: the marine iguana.
Now this is the iguana that, without fail, features in any nature documentary about the Galápagos.
The marine iguana, as the name implies, is at home to the coastal salt waters of the Pacific. They are only found in the Galápagos Islands.
While I have seen a green iguana in Belize swimming across a stream, its distant relative spends much more time in the tides of the Pacific foraging underwater for sea vegetation.
The large marine iguana statue at Floreana.
We had many encounters with marine iguanas on the different islands that we visited. Like the birds of the Galápagos, they show no fear of humans. Our guide told us to be careful and not step on an iguana. They certainly do not move out of the way when approached.
Marine iguanas spent a lot of time out of the water sunning themselves in between foraging for seaweed. A loose sketch from one of my photos of a group of iguanas warming up.The marine iguanas cover the lava. They are cold-blooded and foraging in the cold Humboldt Current of the Galápagos means they need to huddle together to warm up.
While the Nemo III was anchored off the small Galapagos island of Santa Fe I sat at the stern and panted the landscape before me with the panga in the foreground.
The Galápagos is famous for its very drab but diverse (in beak size) finches. They are rather mistakenly called Darwin’s Finches.
Large ground-finch on Genovesa.
In 1835, Darwin famously only spent five weeks in the Galápagos visiting only four of the islands (I visited nine).
“Darwin’s finches” was never a phrase coined by Darwin himself but his writings in the Voyage of the Beagle and Origin of Species really put the Galápagos and it’s finches on the scientific map.
Throughout the islands you will see many statues or paintings of Charles Darwin in many ages of his life. He was in his mid twenties when he visited the Galápagos.
I did a continuous line sketch of one of the statues in San Cristobal with a finch on his shoulder. (The finch was not real but part of the statue.) The statue stands with hand extended as if he is offering to shake your hand. Behind him is a model of the Beagle, looking more like a play structure you might find in a fast food restaurant.
The silly statue of Darwin on San Cristobal with one of his famous finches on his shoulder.An example of Darwin as an older man at the Charles Darwin Research Station.
In the excellent Pulitzer Prizewinning book The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner, the author tells the story of Peter and Rosemary Grant and the long term study of the finches of a small Galápagos island. Through their multi-decade research (measuring finch beak size) they are able to witness evolution in action.
I was most excited to see this small island that can’t be visited by the general public: Daphne Major. This is where the Grants did their groundbreaking research that changed our understanding of evolution.
For my spread of the finches, I sketched two of my favorites: the vegetarian and the tool using woodpecker finch. Both sketches are based on my photos.
On a Friday morning we visited one of the most pristine beaches in all the Galapagos: Bahia Gardner.
As our panga arrived, we were greeted by a seal lion in the surf who was between us and our chosen landing site. Here sealions rule the beach!
We walked up the beach and were greeted by the other ambassadors of Bahia Gardener: the Espanola mockingbird.
These mockingbirds aren’t hard to find because they find you. They readily approach beach visitors, inspecting your shoes or sandals. If you set your pack down it will be surrounded by mockingbirds, pecking at pockets and straps.
A mockingbird about to nutmeg Dave.
There were a fair number of Galapagos sea lions hauled out on the beach. Plenty of relatively stable subjects in repose to sketch.
I walked the beach adding sea lions to my spread (featured sketch).
On my Hawaii/Australia adventure I took a total of six flights so it left me with plenty of time to do some airport sketching. A perfect way to spend time while waiting to board. Or a perfect way to spend time if you’re really bored!
I did a total of nine sketches, some of which I have included here.
I always enjoy the art in airports. My home airport, SFO, frequently changes what’s on show.
Most of the time I focus on the scene outside the window of planes parked at the gates. But at the airport in Cairns (Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef) I sketched some of the fish sculptures hanging from the ceiling (all rendered in a continuous-line sketch).
You can’t be in Cairns (pronounced “cans”) without heading out to the natural wonder that is the Great Barrier Reef.
I chose a trip on the Ocean Spirit to Michaelmas Cay, a sandy island on the reef.
While I am a certified SCUBA diver and I love marine life, I was here for the birds.
I checked in and walked out to the dock under a light, warm drizzle. It rains almost everyday in Cairns. I was early so I headed to the breakwater to try to pick up a lifer.
I scanned the nearby trees for roosting birds, I was looking for a night-heron. I found one foraging at the breakwater. I guess no one told it that it was a night-heron, a Nankeen night-heron.
I headed back to the dock and boarded the Ocean Spirit.
While waiting for the Ocean Spirit to depart I sketched the mountains to the south and the boats moored in the foreground.
During the two hour cruise to the cay, we stopped to look at a few humpback whales.
This is a continuous-line sketch of the Ocean Spirit looking towards the bow as we head to the cay.
We arrived at the cay and anchored to the buoy. The launch began to take snorkelers to the sandy cay.
I headed over and walked on the vibrant sands. The cay is a bird sanctuary and various pelagic birds nest and roost here. The most prominent breeding bird at this time of year is the brown booby.
This a semi-regular vagrant to the west coast of California but I had never seen one this close and in it breeding plumage. I sketch one on it sandy nest (featured sketch).
The top birding site in the Australian State of Queensland is the Cairns Esplanade.
The esplanade is a path that runs north to south along the water with parks and trees bordering to the west. This path is popular with joggers, bikers, and dog walkers, as well as birders from around the world.
When the tide is right, many waders feed close in on the exposed tidal flats but there are always birds to be found foraging in the trees.
With the following sketches I highlight a few of the species I encountered on the Esplanade. While none of these species are rare or Esplanade specialties, they are birds that grabbed my attention.
Ever since seeing woodswallows in my Australian bird guide I knew I wanted to see them, primarily because of an interesting behavior. My guide reads, “compulsively social when loafing or roosting, often settling in tight rows on branches to sleep or to preen themselves or each other”. There are six species of woodswallow in Oz, these were white-breasted.
While in Australia I added seven species of kingfisher to my world list including the world’s largest kingfisher, the laughing kookaburra. I added my last species of kingfisher on my final day in Cairns birding the northern Esplanade.
In my bird guide it is known as the collared kingfisher but is now known as the Torrisian kingfisher. Named for the Torres Strait which is the body of water separating Queensland and New Guinea.
I had missed this larger kingfisher on two other visits. The most common kingfisher on the tidal flats and in the trees was the wonderfully named scared kingfisher.
On my last pass I found two Torrisans perched in trees near the water. They were both calling and having me stunning looks in the morning light!
The final bird that I am highlighting is perhaps the most common and as one bird guide notes, “widespread and well-loved”. And I certainly loved my encounters with the Willie wagtail.
The wagtail seems to relish being in the presence of humans. While I was walking across a lawn at the northern end of the esplanade, a Willie wagtail flew up to me and landed close. The bird followed me as I traversed the grass and I realized the wagtail was using me like the cattle egret uses cattle, as a way to scare up bugs from underfoot.
I had experienced this behavior once before, as I was being followed Wunce by a barn, swallow, while I was crossing a soccer pitch.
If the cassowary was number one on my bird wishlist, a monotreme topped my mammal wishlist. A unique creature only found in one place in the world: the eastern coastal region of Australia.
This is Ornithorhynchus anatinus, the platypus.
Before I left for Australia, my guide hinted that we might have a chance for platypus in the way that most nature guides don’t overpromise what they can’t control while giving you real hope of the possibility of seeing a sought after species in the wild.
I brought with me my good luck platypus in giving me extra luck in seeing this sought after species.
Our search was conducted at Peterson Creek in Yungaburra, North Queensland.
A platypus interpretive sign on the banks of the creek. We must be in the right place.
Out guide told us to look for small bubbles at the surface as we walked along the creek. This was a sign that a platypus was foraging under the brown turbid water. The platypus would come to the surface for a breath of air. It would be at the surface for 10 to 15 seconds and this was the best time to see Australia’s mammalian oddity before it dove down to continue foraging.
Walking along the creek looking for tell tale bubbles.
Now platypus lore says that the best time to see this aquatic mammal is at dawn and dusk. So why were we at the bank of the creek in early afternoon? According to our guide, we had a good chance of seeing platypus on this stretch of creek at any time of day. Platypus spend a lot of the hours of the day foraging for food. And that is the best time to see them.
It did take long before we saw small bubbles rising to the surface and followed shortly by the platypus itself. The amazing mammal stayed at the surface for about 20 seconds before diving down to forage.
We spent about 20 memorable minutes with the platypus, getting excellent looks and photos.
Australia is home to ten species of bowerbird and I saw half of them.
Bowerbirds themselves are a beautiful and varied group of birds. What makes them well known around the world is the bowers that the males build to attract females. And we thought humans are the only artists on the planet.
All the bower designs are different depending on species and each female of the species seems to be attracted to different colors. For instance, female satin bowers birds prefer blue while great bowerbirds go for white and light gray.
Female satin bowerbird prefers blue decorations like her eye color.
Once the bower had been constructed, the male finishes the bower off with decorations purloined, or foraged, by the male. Many of the decorations are human made plastics.
I was able to see and sketch two bowers on my Australian trip. Bowers constructed by the male golden and great bowerbirds.
I was in Australia during their winter and so it was out of breeding season but some bowers remain standing year round.
One such bower was in a cemetery and our guide showed us the bower of the great bowerbird.
The great bowerbird paints in a palette of whites and grays including a set of plastic toy handcuffs.
I did a spread about the bower and the bird that created it (featured sketch).
Our next bower was in the rain forests of north Queensland at an elevation above 2,000 feet.
We hiked up a short way to the bower. But we also wanted to see the male that the bower belonged to. This required waiting.
This is a where being a sketcher has its advantages. Waiting means, “Time for a sketch!”
I sketched the impressive bower that was constructed of two tall towers. In the off season, the bower was a work in progress with one tower being about five feet high and the other was under construction. Between the towers was the “stage” lined in green moss.
Now we had to wait for Australia’s smallest and most sought after bowerbird.
After about 15 minutes, I saw a flash of gold cross from left to right which caused me to write a haiku:
A bower waiting
Flash of gold across the bow
Leaves us wanting more
The bower bird flew into a tree out of view, in this case the North Queensland endemic golden bowerbird.
In the darkness under the rainforest canopy I realized another benefit of field sketching, you don’t need a lot of light to sketch but as my shifty photos of the bowerbird proves, you need light to paint with light.
A blurry photo of the male golden bowerbird.
After another wait, the male bowerbird returned to his bower with some green moss to cover his stage. The group all got great looks at this most sought after Queensland endemic.
Corvid Sketcher 