Dr Steven Swartz and his partner and wife, MaryLou Jones, had their first date on Searcher, back in their early days of gray whale research and courtship!
Capt. Art's Wildlife Blog
Feb 22, 2012
Feb 20, 2012
Incredible blue whale encounter
Click MORE to see photos of the friendly blue whale calf.
Feb 20, 2012
Gray whale mom/calf adopt Searcher
Click MORE button to see Capt Art’s companions in Laguna San Ignacio.
Feb 20, 2012
Feb 18, 2012
Tour #1: Cabo San Lucas and gray whale news
Passengers got off Searcher in Cabo San Lucas today. Some will stay on in the area for a few days, others are heading to the airport for flights home. We can wait to hear from everyone after they’ve returned home and absorbed all they’ve seen! Capt Art is still whalewatching on the trip home! He [...]
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Feb 17, 2012
Tour #1: Islas San Jose and Los Islotes
Hello whalewatchers, We enjoyed another beautiful day in sunny Baja. We started our day with a pre-breakfast skiff ride in the mangroves at Isla San Jose. Everyone enjoyed this trip and the bird list was outstanding. We left there and headed for Los Islotes to snorkel with sea lions. We came across a large herd [...]
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Feb 16, 2012
Tour #1: Bahia Agua Verde
Hello whale watchers: We had another great day with a early walk on the peninsula at Bahia Agua Verde. The weather is still good with a few clouds and a light breeze. The temperature dropped quite a bit with a frontal passage today. A few snorkellers went in the water at this great spot and [...]
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Feb 15, 2012
Tour #1: Isla Santa Catalina and surroundings
Hello whalewatchers,
We had another great day with sunny skies and calm seas. The group went ashore on Isla Santa Catalina early and everyone loved the cactus. I went for a walk for some exercise and found a few things in bloom and plenty of greenery on the various shrubs. Upon returning there was alot of interest in a Krazy Koastal Kruise (with Kaptain Kenny or Kole) so we sent three skiffs out for some birdwatching and photography of the scenery.
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Feb 15, 2012
Do you facebook? If so, “like” us at Searcher Natural History Tours! (photo is our newest naturalist–Julie Kondor!)
Feb 14, 2012
Tour #1: Isla Santa Catalina
We had an extraordinary day today!
Just when you think you’ve seen it all on one of these trips events like this happen and you know that you never know what might happen in this special place.
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Feb 14, 2012
Mid-day report from Isla Santa Catalina
You’ll want to check back for a full report, but Capt Art called after lunch to report a huge feeding area of blue, fin, Bryde’s whales and a herd of common dolphins! This is after a morning on the island bird and lizard watching AND a nice snorkel session. Stay tuned…
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Feb 13, 2012
Tour #1: Offshore Cabo San Lucas/Los Frailes
Hello whalewatchers, Today was another great day! We watched several humpback whales seeing all their usual behaviors like breaching, flipper flapping, tail lobbing and more. We also saw a cow with a very young calf along with an escort. Great whale watching today. A special treat was that it got calm enough that we saw [...]
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Feb 12, 2012
Tour #1: Bahia Magdalena
Hello whalewatchers, We had a spectacular day off of Bahia Magdalena today with a lot of life. It started off with good bird life and a group of six masked boobies (which was a treat), a Laysan albatross and plenty of shearwaters, frigatebirds and gulls. After identifying the boobies ,we had a humpback whale breach [...]
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Feb 12, 2012
Feb 11, 2012
Tour #1: Laguna San Ignacio, day 2
Hello whalewatchers,
We’ve enjoyed another picture-perfect day in Laguna San Ignacio with clear skies and light winds. We started the day with a visit from a cow and calf next to the Searcher. The cow was interested in the anchor line and had a good time rubbing on it for a while. They returned for two more visits throughout the day and they were here right up until we had to leave this afternoon
http://youtu.be/pBDoUTbkpRo
The pangas had good whalewatching all day with great viewing and close encounters on just about every trip. The last trip of the day provided everyone with a trip of a lifetime with close encounters with a cow and calf.
We also had a trip to the mangroves for one panga. There was an interesting sighting made on that trip, a red tailed tropicbird was seen by all and some good photos to make sure of the ID. Not too many sightings of that bird in this area! Also there was enough interest in going to the beach for the final trip this afternoon for one panga.
We are headed south and look forward to the area outside Bahia Magdalena tomorrow.
More then,
Capt Art
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Feb 10, 2012
Tour #1: Laguna San Ignacio
Hello all, Today was our first day in Laguna San Ignacio. It is wonderful to be back in this very special place. The weather was phenomenal with clear skies, warm temperatures and very light winds all day. There are plenty of gray whales here and the group all had a close encounter with a whale. [...]
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Feb 9, 2012
Tour #1: Islas San Benito
Hello whalewatchers, Today was a glorious day at Islas San Benito. There has been some rain here in the recent past because there were some green areas and flowers in bloom–blue dicks , island mallow, cliff spurge and more. There were plenty of northern elephant seals including hauled out males and females with pups. There [...]
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Feb 8, 2012
Tour #1–Ensenada and Islas Todos Santos
Hello whalewhatchers, We are excited to be on our first trip of the 2012 natural history season Today we saw several northbound gray whales, big groups of short-beaked common dolphins. three different species of pinnipeds, plenty of black oystercatches, and peregrine falcon at Islas Toda Santos. The weather has improved greatly this afternoon with a [...]
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Feb 7, 2012
Tour #1 scheduled for departure!
After weeks of glorious and sunny San Diego weather, things turned gray and wet today, just in time for our intrepid whalewatchers to wake up in town or arrive by plane. However, they are headed south to Baja where the sun lives and should have wonderful whales and weather soon enough. Some of our UK [...]
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Feb 6, 2012
