Day Eleven of my Log of the Searcher Natural History Tour Around the Baja by Boat February 2, 2011

Oserving the Sunrise 

It is now February 2, the last full day of the Baja trip. We continue southward toward the Gorda banks and added a sei whale to our species. We now have seen 19 of the 21 species that are commonly found in the Gulf of California and on the Pacific coast of the Baja.

Humpback Whale Fluke

Humpback Whale Underwaer

Short-finned Pilot Whale with a Fluke injury probably secondary to fishing line

 
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Short-Beaked Common Dolphins Leaping

 Besides the Marine mammals that we saw there were also Manta Rays leaping .

We returned to Los Frailes/Cabo Pulmo to get some relief from the wind. We went ashore again to explore and bird watch. On the beach there was snowy plovers, that were mostly hunkered down to get out of the winds.  B laid on the sand and crawled up so I could get better pictures of them. Being battered by the wind wasn't bad, however, the sand was being blown straight at me. I did obtain the picture I wanted.

I was able to see and photograph the Baja-endemic Xantus's hummingbird, which is endemic to the Baja and is an accidental visitor to the US West.

Here is a photograph for an naturalist Rob trotting back toward the boat, prior to us leaving for the Searcher

We had had excellent roast beef dinner for supper, and afterward everybody recounted what they enjoyed about the trip and what it meant to them.

That is me in the blue

Our Most Excellent Chef Charles

Part of the great  Crew

An other Sunset

Day Eight of my Log of the Searcher Natural History Tour Around the Baja by Boat January 30, 2011

It is now a beautiful Sunday morning and we arrived at Punta Colorado, Isla San José in time for the sunrise. The sandstone cliffs at Punta Colorado glowed with the sunrise and many people were on deck enjoying the sunrise and the views. 

Sunrise

Sunrise light  on the Sandstone Cliffs

Enjoying the Sunrise

After breakfast, the group went on a skiff right along the shoreline, into the cadence and observing the different features of the rocks. High on top of one of the cliffs was a Peregrine falcon.

leaving the searcher for a skiff ride

Entering a cave

The Cliffs

Fossil Sharks Tooth from the rocks

Blue-footed Booby

Brown Pelican

Yellow-footed Gull

Sally Lightfoot

 

Thre Sally lightfoot crabs were extremely fast and could run up a vertical wall with ease.

After a skiff ride, we landed on the beach and took up a hike up on Arroyo see in all the different plant life and geological changes that have occurred on the island. On the beach, a tarantula hawk wasp was found and photographed. These wasps capture and sting tarantulas, then bring the tarantula to the nest of the wasp so that the young may feed. A portion of the group went snorkeling.
 



Ciff Face in the Arroyo



We spent the rest of the day in transit to Isla Santa Catalina. On the way, we ended up seeing a spectacular event, something that none of the people are leaders on board had ever seen, a Byide's whale peer and the event occurred of the calf breaching. On another site I posted the picture and got replies that no one else who had seen many Bryde's whales ever saw one breaching.

 We had more, long-beaked common Dolphins and a couple of groups of short-finned pilot whales come up near our boat.

Double Flip

Scored  9.9 out of 10

Long-beaked  Common Dolphins

Short-finned Pilot Whale

Another event that we observed was finding a sperm whale on the surface, who then dived and showed us its fluke. The hydrophone was placed down, and we listened to the sperm whales sonar beeping as it tried to locate prey.

Sperm Whale

Sperm Whale Fkuke