Contents 9
EPIGRAPH
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INTRODUCTION
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1 23 1 25
PHOTOGRAPHIC VOYAGE
AFTERWORD LIST OF PLATES
Patience Fish Tekulsky and Mathew Tekulsky, Bartolome Island, 12/23/04
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Introduction
As it happened, 2004 was the year of my fiftieth birthday, and my mother, Patience
Fish Tekulsky, offered the Galapagos trip to me as a birthday gift. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. After flying from Los Angeles to Miami and then to Quito, Ecuador, Mom and I flew to Guayaquil and on to San Cristobal Island, our first stop on our Galapagos voyage. There, we met up with our boat and for the next week, this vessel carried about twenty or so fellow travelers and ourselves from island to island encountering Galapagos birds of various shapes, sizes, and colors, along with the famous iguanas, lizards, sea lions, turtles, and giant tortoises.
Unlike most wild birds, the birds of the Galapagos are not afraid of people, and
they remain where they happen to be, even if you approach within a few feet of them. Imagine standing right next to a Red-footed or Blue-footed Booby, or even a Magnificent Frigatebird, that doesn’t even move an inch; or observing a Yellow Warbler hitching a ride on the back of a Galapagos Giant Tortoise; or witnessing the courtship
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ritual of the Waved Albatross, just a stone’s throw away from you. These are the very bird species that Darwin would have seen all those years ago, in particular the Galapagos finches which helped him devise his theory of evolution based in part on the various shapes and sizes of these birds’ beaks.
As much of my artistic life has been dedicated to photographing and writing about
birds, I view this book as an opportunity to use my photographs of the Galapagos birds as a statement about how important it is to preserve our world’s natural environment, including the numerous species of plants and animals that inhabit the Earth along with us humans.
I consider this book as a tribute to my mother, who loved life and nature, and who
passed on her love of both to me. LOS ANGELES, 2020
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But when he grows up, his feet turn blue.
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43
Soon, he attracts a mate.
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He has orange feathers and a long beak.
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The adult Lava Heron waits patiently.
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A Sanderling stands on the rocks.
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