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Exploring the Galapagos Islands
By Paul W. Richard Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2015 Paul W. Richard
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-5723-0
CHAPTER 1
JUNGLE LIFE
He sucked jungle air into his short beak and flapped his stubby wings in desperation as he leaped off the nest. He was actually staying in the air and could soon move about as he pleased. The ease of it surprised him, but he was a bird. Floating feelings came over Fernando as he glided downward to a large branch in the dark greenery. The landing was somewhat rocky and unstable but felt good. After his first flight, Fernando felt terribly excited. Having a solid tree branch beneath his clawed feet was far better than being in the family nest.
"I can fly! I can fly!" yelled Fernando to his watching family. He had waited so long for this day after spending most of his life confined to the small nest with his brothers and sister. Endless months had passed as he waited for this moment.
His brothers and sister alighted beside him on the branch overlooking the dark forest floor. High above them, he could see patches of faint blue sky between the broad leaves of the towering jungle canopy. Some leaves were shaking to his right as a large red monkey scrambled along the entwining branches and vines high above.
Maria, his mother, landed on a nearby vine and praised him for doing such a fine job on his first flight. Slow in developing, Fernando was the last of the family to take to the air. His other brothers and sister, Pedro, Quintino, and Madonna, were more advanced fliers but still inexperienced in the ways of the jungle.
For a few days, under the watchful eyes of his parents, Maria and Antonio, Fernando flew with the others from limb to limb near the nest. His wings needed practice to become stronger before venturing far from where he and the others were hatched. Fernando wanted so much to be an adept flier as his parents were. They could fly anywhere and, from all angles, land easily.
Like all jungle finches, Fernando's beak was short and stout. He used it to crack and crush the seeds his parents brought. Sometimes he and the others were fed insects or small soft berries. He was most fond of the berries since they were so easy to crush and swallow, but the seeds were tasty too.
When Fernando and his brothers and sister were being confined to the nest, their parents had often brought them beaks full of rainwater. They had gathered it from cupped leaves, hollow logs, and small pools trapped between branches and trunks of the giant trees. All Fernando and his brothers and sister were required to do for a drink was open their beaks. Then Maria and Antonio deposited the clear liquid down their throats.
The family had been well provided for by Antonio and Maria, who had worked tirelessly bringing food and water to the ever-hungry four. Fernando had heard Antonio sometimes grumble to Maria, wondering if they would ever grow big enough to leave the nest. He wasn't as cheerfully dutiful as Maria was in raising the little ones, but he did his part.
Antonio had plans to move the family once they could all fly well. He had an itchy foot to travel near the big river he'd heard about. But it was too soon to move the family from the nest site. The nest was still needed as a place for the young finches to spend the noisy nights and rest after practicing flying much of the day.
The jungle night was frighteningly dark with endless sounds of beeping frogs, screaming birds, howling monkeys, clicking insects, and hissing bats. Fernando wondered if he could ever adjust to being outside at night and roosting on a limb as his parents did. In the darkness, he felt terribly naked, unprotected, and feared jungle sounds.
One morning Fernando and Madonna landed on a mossy tree limb near a huge bird. "You are sure fat, little guys!" quipped a large red, blue, and green parrot from the tree trunk. The parrot was using his beak to pull himself from limb to limb up the trunk.
"Do you really think so?" replied Fernando. "I thought all finches had kinda stocky fat bodies." The parrot's comments had made them both feel a bit uneasy.
"Now I guess you're right. All you little guys are kinda fat. Now we parrots are big and beautiful."
"I can't disagree with that," replied Fernando, watching the parrot pull himself upright on a sturdy limb. "Why do you have so much color anyway?"
"Now, boy, you shouldn't have to ask. We're supposed to be the most beautiful and biggest birds in this here jungle."
"Why don't we finches have your kind of color?" asked Madonna, noticing that her brother had only small patches of bright red on his head.
"You're not supposed to! You're just little birds and not big like me. Why, I can eat a piece of fruit bigger 'en you."
"But, sir, there are other small birds with colors bright as yours. Those flycatchers have even more colors than you," replied Fernando.
"Yeah, but, kid, they ain't big and beautiful at the same time. Why do you ask all these questions anyway? Don't you know this is how it's all supposed to be? It's always been this way too. So fly off and leave me alone. Don't question what is."
"OK," said Fernando. He hadn't intended to hurt the big parrot's feelings. He and Madonna had just wondered about it all. They departed and left the touchy parrot to his fruit-feeding.
For the next few weeks, Fernando, his brothers, and sister followed Antonio and Maria about in the dense vegetation finding food and water and learning the ways of the jungle finches. By watching their parents, the young finches soon determined what the best seeds to eat were and where to find them.
One day Fernando noticed part of a gray tree slowly moving. He flew closer to take a look and learned that it wasn't a tree at all but a creature that had four legs with three long claws at each end of them. It was without wings. It moved very slowly and with gentle movements and total grace. Its coat was of hair rather than feathers and seemed to have green algae plants growing in it. Two tiny eyes and a flattened nose were above a weak mouth slit.
"What are you anyway?" asked Fernando as he watched the animal come to rest in the bend of a big tree limb.
"I am a tree sloth, and my name is Zondar the Prescient One," came the reply from the gentle gray lips that were surrounded by white hairs. "Why do you ask? Most finches never concern themselves with me or ever want to know anything."
"What does 'prescient' mean?"
"It means that I know what's ahead, Fernando."
"You must. You knew my name without me even telling you!"
"Yes, if you'll sit on my claw, I'll talk with you more easily. You see, my eyesight is very poor."
"You won't hurt me?"
"No, I mean you no harm. Besides, I'm a vegetarian."
Bravely Fernando hopped onto one mossy green curved claw and looked into the gentle brown eyes of Zondar. "How come finches never talk with you?"
"Nobody really talks to us much. Everyone thinks we're not too bright. But it's not true."
"I think you're not too fast moving, but you seem smart enough. And your eyes look fine to me."
"Since we can't see too well, we have the power to look into the future. No other animal has this gift."
"Really?"
"I believe that you are gifted as well, Fernando. Your questions have let me know this."
"What do you mean?"
"Just as I am a special gifted one who can see into the future, you too have a gift and are destined."
"Prove to me that you know what's ahead," demanded Fernando.
"All I will say is that very soon something will befall someone you love very much. You will know that I can see what's ahead when this event happens."
"Tell me!"
"I cannot. That would change the future, and sloths won't do that."
"How come you can tell me that I'm destined then?"
"It's not the same. You are fated to explore and discover. You will see what others see. However, you will think and see it in new ways and find the truth."
"What truth?"
"It will unveil itself. You can't learn it from me, and if you did, it would spoil the adventure. Only the future will show and tell you. I know that it's your destiny," said Zondar reaching up for the next limb with a three-clawed arm and pulling slowly upward.
Obviously, it was time to go, but Fernando had a thousand more questions. Zondar said nothing more and disappeared up the tree into the dense greenery.
He didn't believe what that strange animal, Zondar, had said. Why would he, of his entire family, have some gift to enable him to learn the truth, and what truth anyway? Fernando almost decided to forget what the sloth said, for it was probably only a wild tale. As his father had told him, "Some jungle creatures can't be trusted."
He found Antonio lower down in the canopy and asked, "Should I believe anything a sloth tells me?"
"Of course not. Sloths can't talk anyway," replied his father.
"This one could."
"Don't be silly. They can't talk to us, and we finches have a saying, 'Dumb as a sloth!' It fits the things too. I don't like them."
Fernando paused and decided not to talk anymore about it with his father and changed the subject.
With his head cocked to one side, Fernando asked, "When do we change into parrots? I'm tired of being a small finch."
Antonio looked at him in disbelief and replied, "We don't ever change. We always stay as finches."
"Why?"
"Because we're finches, not silly parrots. We're totally different, Fernando."
"But we all have feathers, feet, wings, and beaks, and I don't see why we have to stay finches until we drop to the jungle floor. Maybe we come back up as flycatchers or parrots."
"No, we don't. They fall down there too when they die."
"Where do we come from then?"
"Eggs."
"Where did the eggs come from?"
"Finches," Antonio was getting a bit tired of these questions.
"Where did the first finch that laid the eggs come from?"
"That's enough! You just can't question where finches came from. We have been finches forever and will never change," answered Antonio and then flew away from his questioning offspring.
Fernando continued noticing how all the birds were basically the same in design. He wondered about them and wanted so badly to be a blue, green, and red parrot.
Quintino and Madonna joined Pedro and Fernando in a game of finch-tag. Their parents watched as the young finches flew briskly about a dozen mossy vines hanging from the limb of an ancient hardwood tree. The tagged finch sought to touch another with a beak. When it did, everyone then fled from the touched bird. It was more a dodging and darting game among the vines than a contest of flying speed. Quintino had the most difficulty in catching the others in the game, and sometimes the others had to slow down, making it easier for him.
"Aren't they having a great time, Maria?" asked Antonio as he rested beside his mate on a thin leafless limb twenty feet away from the game players.
"Bless their hearts, they sure are. It's surprising that Fernando and Pedro are the fastest."
"But you know, Maria, I think Pedro is the most cunning. Notice the way he uses the vines to his advantage when being chased. He may not be the fastest, but he's the hardest to tag."
"They are learning really fast. Soon they'll be totally feeding themselves. Won't that be a relief?"
"You bet. I'm tired of this food-finding job. It's been a bit better lately since they can get some on their own. Maybe soon we can move to a new territory too," he said, letting Maria know he wanted a new area.
"You know very well I don't want to leave this place. I was hatched here and have lived here all my life. I'd hate learning a new territory. Besides, my parents and grandparents were raised here too."
"Well, at least think about it. Those little guys down there will have to leave some time and find their own places," responded Antonio, trying to support his case for moving. He had moved often until he met Maria. This was the longest he'd ever been in one place.
Soon the young finches spotted a huge emerald butterfly resting on a vine. All four of them flew around and around the beautiful creature, hoping to cause it to fly. It remained stone-still, and they lost interest and landed on vines nearer their parents.
Showing off for each other and their parents, the young finches called to one another in their hoarse, raspy tones; each bird tried to outdo the others in loudness and in pitch.
Suddenly there was a lightning-quick movement in the vegetation, and Quintino was grabbed and yanked into the dense leaves. From his branch, Fernando could see the tail of a large green snake slither back into the green. Maria and Antonio flew about the snake, but it retreated into a dark hole in the huge tree.
They gathered near the tree and waited. But soon Maria ordered everyone away to the old nest. It was held up by such tiny limbs that no big snake could reach it. They were safe there.
It took a while for them to realize that Quintino was gone forever. They wept for him and were so angry at the snake. It was the saddest time in their young lives, and they stayed close to the nest for a few days. No matter how it pained them, slowly everyone began to accept the fact that Quintino was no more.
One day near the nest, Maria said, "Maybe I agree with you, Antonio. Perhaps soon we should find a new territory. I don't want to be reminded of Quintino's death every time I see that big tree."
"Let's do it as soon as they are flying and eating on their own. I think they have been sadly jolted into the realization of the many predators about us. I'll speak with them."
Antonio landed on the nest's edge and said, "We have to be alert all the time. In all this vegetation, green enemies can easily wait to trap us. Watch, be alert, and be very careful in landing. We finches survive by our keen senses and must be constantly on guard. Let's watch out for each other too."
Fernando remembered what the sloth Zondar had told him. He didn't want to tell his parents. They both thought he had too active an imagination, and they wouldn't listen. Yet Fernando knew that what the sloth had predicted had come to pass. Now the future worried him, for he knew he had to travel and discover, but what?
For weeks Fernando felt as if his heart had been removed from him, and he knew Pedro and Madonna felt the same. Fernando didn't even feel like eating. When he did, it was not enjoyable; he was just going through the motions. He missed Quintino so. At night he dreamed of his lost brother and that he had returned as a green-and-blue parrot. He didn't, however, tell Antonio of this.
Over time the sadness eased. The family again continued their activities of flitting from place to place, moving farther and farther from the nest, and returning to it at night.
"Mother, why do we eat seeds? Why don't we eat big fruits?"
"Well, Fernando, I think we'd need a beak like a parrot's to eat the big fruits. Also, we'd become ill if we ate much of it. Why do you ask?"
"I'd like to be a parrot or maybe a flycatcher and eat in the air instead of looking for seeds and watching for snakes in the leaves. My beak is nearly like a flycatcher's, so couldn't I eat the same things?"
"Their beaks are a bit smaller and have all those bristle like hairs around them. While you can eat a few insects, the problem is digesting a lot of insects."
"Maybe I can."
"Go ahead and try, but I'll bet it makes you sick."
He tried it and learned that his mother was correct. He was indeed a seed and small-fruit and berry eater. But in a fantasy life, he was every bird he watched. Being a finch seemed dull to Fernando, and he wondered why his brother and sister were so content to be finches. He'd rather be anything than what he was.
One night Maria suggested that they all stay outside and roost away from the nest. That first night passed uneventfully, as did the next few. Still, Fernando was so frightened of the sounds from the dark mass of vegetation surrounding him; he had to force himself to sleep.
On their fourth night away from the nest, a monkey far above knocked a limb free. It fell and hit Pedro, knocking him to the forest floor. Everyone called, but nothing could be heard or seen in the blackness. At first light, Antonio investigated the dark musty forest floor where the slow creepy-crawly creatures dwelt. In this forbidden place, he found the young finch unconscious. He finally woke Pedro, and they left its mossy covered dimness for the fresh and airy canopy. Everyone was happily relieved that he was safe.
Later Fernando was perched on a limb with his father, and the conversation drifted to birds again.
"Why are we active only in the daytime?"
He could see Antonio roll his eyes as he prepared for the host of questions. "Birds are just day animals."
"How come? I hear all these other animals out at night making sounds."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Exploring the Galapagos Islands by Paul W. Richard. Copyright © 2015 Paul W. Richard. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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