In the ongoing saga of finchdom (yep…that’s what I’m calling the Galapagos now). Finchdom. The land of the finches. Finchtastic. Well, you get the point. So, in the previous instalment you did not see any bill action. The juvenile finches seem a little perplexed at what they are supposed to do. They follow ma and pa finch around picking up random bits of stuff on the ground and try it out. Here, however, is the monster of all finches. Destroying the plant life!

This is a large ground finch (male) with a soft seed pod in toe, pit by pit destroying this plant.

And here is the aftermath. Looks a little like a destroyed halloween pumpkin:

Witness the carnage all around it.

Whether it be truth or myth, there is an expression in many Galapagos field guides: “It is only a very wise man or a fool who thinks that he is able to identify all the finches which he sees.” (From: http://people.rit.edu/rhrsbi/GalapagosPages/DarwinFinch.html) – actual source is Michael Harris’ field guide. This is so very true. The small and medium ground finches can usually be discerned easily in some field sites, but in others…boy there can be overlapping distributions. Same can be said for the medium compared to the large ground finch. Here is a little visitor to our porch, looking to me like a juvenile medium ground finch (hopefully the finch mafia isn’t following my blog in case I’ve mis-identified this one!):

Hard at work, scorching myself in the sun. Rumours that I have melted in the heat in Galapagos are close to being true. Still, I have plenty of sun block and am off to sit under my tarpoline blind and hope the little finches come to my camera. Meanwhile, here is the sign that we pass every day on our walk into town. There is a public beach right at the research station:

Apparently there are only about 400 pairs of breeding lava gulls on the islands. We seem to be near the most persistently bothersome ones, as this individual here has decided he would rather be in the limelight. Note how he has nicely placed himself squarely where we are trying to obtain thermal images of Darwin’s finches. Maybe he fancies himself a finch? I have a nice thermal image of his hot little legs somewhere on one of my electronic devices…

A view from our cabin (which is almost on the ocean, except for the invasive plant species ruining our view!!) at the Charles Darwin Research station reveals a constant stream of boats coming in. Being on what is effectively a desert island, I initially thought this was a pirate ship. Then I remembered that I watched Pirates of the Caribbean on the flight down here, so perhaps my imagination got the better of me.

So, we’ve decided to hire the local mockingbird. Well, hire is a lose term. Like many student interns and volunteers, he is paid nothing. Science is, after all, a passion, and not a means to get rich. But we cannot exactly feed him peanuts either. Anyhow, here he is setting up our equipment in the field:
And inspecting the cables to make sure they are connected to the computer:

Looks like he even knows how to add an extension cable:
If I had had an opportunity to volunteer as a student, I’d have jumped at the chance! I wonder if he knows about IP agreements and has assumptions of co-authorship…please don’t tell research services or HR that we have an unpaid intern who has not had his health and safety training.

We have been making great strides in our ‘field thermography’ project here. Finches are in great abundance and even allow us to get close enough for imagery. There are, of course, numerous other animals interesting enough to take thermographs of, and some are even keen to help out!! The Galapagos Mockingbird here has been frequenting our field site and is very curious of our technology. So much so that here it is sat perched on my thermal camera while I stopped to take some weather readings:

It is really quite adorable, although he likes to bully the other birds and chases the finches away from the camera. Not a very helpful field assistant.
Oh…some good news. I’ve just been invited to film some of the giant tortoises up close. I might actually get to do some tortoise Science!!

Case note: Cactus plants are abundant here on Galapagos. Go back to your first year botany and see if you can explain why the cactus temperature is higher than other nearby plants.

Sorry, I cut the top off on the thermal image above. Hint: it should have something to do with Crassulacean (spelling? I have no spell check here!) Acid Metabolism.

Yesterday, we took one of the ever-present white toyota trucks that whiz around Puerto Ayora up to a potential field site. These trucks act as taxis and I wonder if shipment of toyotas fell off a shipping container in the pacific and washed up on shore in the Galapagos (much like most of the creatures here). Anyhow, scoping out the field site for potential finch sightings, we stumbled across this interesting creature.

 I will allow the comments to see if you can guess as to what it is. Remember, there are no known venomous snakes in the Galapagos. This creature is about 5 inches long.

Our cabins at the station are located about 50 m away from the tortoise breeding program. Sometimes things can get a little heated

Btw still searching Internet. Currently borrowing from cafes in town