Magdalena Bay
“What did you do on your winter break?” our friends will ask back home. “Oh, not much; just played bumper boats with 25-ton cetaceans.” It was another lively day at Boca de Soledad…beautiful light, cool temperatures, and gray whales surfacing all around us. At the “tail” end of our final whale-seeking outing, a massive back came looming out of the water. No danger, just excitement as we identified “Loca,” a young female that loves to play hide and seek with rubber boats. Most interactions in the waters near the Boca de Soledad involve mother and calf gray whales. However, some of us were fortunate today to encounter this unusually interactive solo female. Unfortunately, our time at Boca de Soledad had to come to an end sometime. We all felt a little sad to say goodbye to our new leviathan friends and our encounters exceeded all our expectations. However, we know new adventures await us in the Gulf of California.
Late in the afternoon we left the waters of Magdalena Bay and entered the Pacific Ocean. Light winds and calm seas made it easy to search for pelagic creatures. Just outside La Entrada we spotted a large aggregation of birds working the surface of the water. Hundreds of gulls, cormorants and pelicans were feeding in a massive swarm of mycid shrimp. This slurry of crustaceans makes a great meal for winged and finned creatures alike. From the air, birds dip, plunge or scoop through waters to make a catch while fish, crabs and carnivorous plankton eaters attacked from below.
As we continued to cruise south in the Pacific, we spotted several new species of birds including several pairs of Xantus’s and Craveri’s murrelets, black-vented shearwaters and Heermann’s gulls. And just before sunset, a small blow in the distance turned into a young humpback whale. So as not to miss a great natural history moment, Captain Kalbach maneuvered the ship to allow us to watch the traveling humpback swim into the setting sun.
“What did you do on your winter break?” our friends will ask back home. “Oh, not much; just played bumper boats with 25-ton cetaceans.” It was another lively day at Boca de Soledad…beautiful light, cool temperatures, and gray whales surfacing all around us. At the “tail” end of our final whale-seeking outing, a massive back came looming out of the water. No danger, just excitement as we identified “Loca,” a young female that loves to play hide and seek with rubber boats. Most interactions in the waters near the Boca de Soledad involve mother and calf gray whales. However, some of us were fortunate today to encounter this unusually interactive solo female. Unfortunately, our time at Boca de Soledad had to come to an end sometime. We all felt a little sad to say goodbye to our new leviathan friends and our encounters exceeded all our expectations. However, we know new adventures await us in the Gulf of California.
Late in the afternoon we left the waters of Magdalena Bay and entered the Pacific Ocean. Light winds and calm seas made it easy to search for pelagic creatures. Just outside La Entrada we spotted a large aggregation of birds working the surface of the water. Hundreds of gulls, cormorants and pelicans were feeding in a massive swarm of mycid shrimp. This slurry of crustaceans makes a great meal for winged and finned creatures alike. From the air, birds dip, plunge or scoop through waters to make a catch while fish, crabs and carnivorous plankton eaters attacked from below.
As we continued to cruise south in the Pacific, we spotted several new species of birds including several pairs of Xantus’s and Craveri’s murrelets, black-vented shearwaters and Heermann’s gulls. And just before sunset, a small blow in the distance turned into a young humpback whale. So as not to miss a great natural history moment, Captain Kalbach maneuvered the ship to allow us to watch the traveling humpback swim into the setting sun.
