Charadriiformes is their order, Scolopacidae is their family and their species name: Arenaria interpres. Arenaria represents the genus and interpres the specific name. This system of naming organisms, established by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1701-78), is known as "binomial nomenclature."

Still, all creatures own a common name. These medium size and short-legged waders have one that suits them very well: ruddy turnstone. The species gets its name for its habit of turning over stones, shells and other objects to find food. Their diet consists mainly of small mollusks, insects and their larvae, and crustaceans.

Their order includes a broad range of wading and swimming birds. Most representatives of this order found in Galapagos are migratory species, and turnstones are too. We see them in their winter plumage, with brown and black upperparts, neck and chest contrasting with white belly.

We found them on the black shorelines of Fernandina island, together with other birds in their same family: whimbrels and wandering tattlers. We spotted a few others classified in their same order: American oystercatchers and semipalmated plovers.

It was a good day for bird watching, but also for fish watching. We saw "mola mola," flying fish and damselfish. And the best of all, bottlenose dolphins "bow riding" the Zodiacs!