Naturalist Rafe Payne and Mrs Jan Payne
Tour #1: Islas San Francisco and Los Islotes
Hello whalewatchers: Well the wind is still with us, but not quite as strong. We had a good walk this morning at Isla San Francisco. After that we headed south looking for whales and heading towards Los Islotes for a skiff ride and snorkel.Everyone had a great time with the sea lions in the skiffs and the snorkelers raved about their session with the sea lions. An added bonus was seeing Brandt’s commorants feeding on a large bait ball.
This was a great trip despite our weather challenges (wind)–plenty of whales and wildlife seen, and of course, the scenery and beauty of the Sea of Cortez and the Baja peninsula. We are looking forward to our next trip already! Team Searcher
Tour #1: Isla San Jose
Hello all,
We started with a trip into the mangroves at Isla San Jose. everyone enjoyed the great bird-watching.
We left there and travelled up the San Jose channel looking for whales, dolphins and whatever we could find. We came across a large area of birds, frigates,pelicans, shearwaters, gulls and boobies. They were feeding with a very large herd of long-beaked common dolphin. We spent at least an hour with them and as we were watching we had three humpback whales join in on the feeding. It was classic Sea of Cortez activity. There was a tremendous amount of life in a small area. We had another large herd of common dolphin converge on the area after the feeding was over and as fast as they showed up all the life disappeared. The birds ,dolphin and whales all went their seperate ways and you wouldn’t know there was a feeding frenzy going on in the area.
We saw a couple other humpbacks before we lost our lighting. We are having margaritas and a buffet on the back deck Searcher -style tonight in a calm place.
Hoping for good weather again tomorrow.
Team Searcher
