Yesterday we looked at who lived at sea level and under the surface a sort of ecotone mapping. Ecotone are the transition zone between two communities. Beryl and I mapped Canary Islands ecotones as part of middle school biology homeschooling driving from the marina to the summit of El Teide. Scribbling in a sketchbook from the backseat of a small rental car with four people going 40-60 miles an hour was not in the Felix Festa Middle School curriculum presented but she passed. On another volcanic island, we traversed many ecotones from the coast up to an elevation of 800m (2500 feet). Finicky rental bikes never intended to lead the tourist sector, slowly took us from sea level to El Junco, a freshwater lake nested inside a volcanic cone. Infrastructure, populations, vegetation and weather all changed dramatically. Normally I would grab a sketchpad and colored pencils to share the ecotone changes but with a text only blog and limited connectivity I will share some Volcanic Ecotone Poems.

Volcano Ecotones Poems?

Lake
Volcano
Farmland
Cemetery
Solid waste
Red Night club
Electric generator
Large suburban homes
Government gas station
Rocks and Fishing Nets Protest
Bright new apartment buildings
Old one-story homes with gardens
Tourist shops water taxis restaurants hotels

Bathing frigate birds
Three brown cows trim grass
Black and brown ground finches
Only other uphill bikers American
Brown floppy eared dogs dash out to greet us
Short ailed chickens climb a staircase to rooftop garden
Awkward beaked black ani squawk in trees along roadside
Uniformed suburban children oblivious to fishing protest horns
Protestors eating ice cream and blowing horns as all traffic stops
Penned chickens in small garden yard strut as man scrapes thin soil
White curly coated dogs lounge comfortable on tourist shops stoops
Red crabs, snoring sea lions, diving blue footed booby, pirating frigate birds


Rain
Light rain
Drizzle rain
Hazy cloud rain
Light drizzle rain
Foggy light hazy rain
Bright sun with clear shadows

Ferns
Oranges
Bananas
Green trees
Origami cactus
Many green trees
Lollipop and inflated cactus
Scrawny light green trees in basalt

Volcano
Hiking here
Downhill turn 40 50 60
Bike straight down left
Three crosses cemetery
Stop Restrictions on Fishing
Mini mart restaurant hot soup


The rocks and fishing nets across the road at the gas station were a surprise. While my pedal catches in the nets the protestor wave us past the barriers and we continue down the hill. Back in town we treated ourselves to a menu del dia in the sun at the beach restaurant. Late lunch with snorting sea lions and finches meant we were back at the sunny, sea level tourist ecotone. Soup warmed us inside as the sun started to dry us off.


Bird Note: In the foggy drizzle overlooking the freshwater lake we met Kay and Betsy two Americans from North Carolina. Kay has been coming to the Galapagos for a decade as her husband built a partnership between UNC and the Galapagos science center. This misty lake is one of her favorite places on the island. She told that the frigate birds we see diving in the lake are not fishing but are cleaning off the saltwater. These big birds with evil wing shapes and long scissor tailed are pirates by nature. They harass other bird to drop or regurgitate their food or scoop up squid or fish near the surface. This behavior explains the Frigate birds at both ends of the Panama Canal where the fish kills from the lake fish dumped into the ocean float near the surface ready to be scooped. We often see ghost birds mobbing Frigate birds clearly part of the retaliation against piracy.