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Tour #2 Mid-day dolphins and humpbacks Feb 12

Hello whalewatchers,
Here’s our mid-day report from offshore Bahia Magdalena. We had calm seas, sunny skies, and a beautiful day. We came across a few dolphin this morning and the first bird we saw was a red-billed tropicbird. We also found a few humpback whales that were  traveling so we added another species of whale to our list.
A little further south we came across a megaherd of common dolphin. There had to be 2000 animals spread over a square mile area. It was really exciting to see so many dolphins! We followed one more humpback whale for awhile with great looks, but no acrobatics or fluking so we are taking a lunch break before continuing on.

More later,

Capt Art

p.s. Sally Walton took this photo of a big herd of common dolphins last year!

2011-02-12T13:02:04-08:00February 12th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Feb 11 Laguna San Ignacio

Hello whalewatchers,
We’ve had another glorious day in Baja with sunny skies and calm seas, and lots of whales in the lagoon. Everyone had a great day. This afternoon there was a option to go to the mangroves and the beach. They saw great birds and a coyote and had a wonderful walk on the beach.
The other panga went back out to visit the whales and they had a phenomenal trip with close encounters with a cow and calf for the majority of the trip. They all came back to the boat soaking wet from their trip. A good time was had by all.
We finished the day with the green flash at sunset. The ocean is calm and the forecast looks great for tomorrow.
More then,
Capt Art

2011-02-21T16:41:22-08:00February 11th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 LOLLING

Hello all,
Today’s word, courtesy of our UK friends, is LOLLING–as in, the whales are lolling around today. We are enjoying wonderful weather with calm winds. And top that off with great whalewatching and plenty of whales in the observation zone. We had two trips this morning, and this afternoon we have an option for a beach walk and a mangrove trip. And for those who can’t get enough of the whales, and you know who THEY are, another trip to visit the whales.
More later with the day’s wrap-up,
Capt Art

p.s. Those on the mangrove trip spotted a coyote. Can you spot it in Hilary Thompson’s photo?

2011-02-19T15:17:55-08:00February 11th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Feb 10 Laguna San Ignacio

Hello all,

This afternoon’s trip was a little slower than this morning’s but there was really good whalewatching with plenty of gray whales in the lagoon. We had a mother/calf pair near the boat today too. The weather changed a little and we had a light breeze that made it a little chilly in the pangas. But everyone had a great time. Dinner was excellent and we are planning to shut the generator off for a little while for some quiet time and do some stargazing. Hope we hear some whales breathing…
Looking forward to tomorrow with the weather forecast favorable. We plan on gettting an early start in the morning.
More tomorrow,

Capt Art

2011-02-10T19:39:39-08:00February 10th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Feb 10 GOBSMACKED!

Hello Whalewatchers,

Here’s a mid-day report from Laguna San Ignacio. For those of you in the UK that might be following along, the word of the day is GOBSMACKED!The entire group is GOBSMACKED  about their visit with the gray whales this morning. Apparently that means everyone is happy and they are not quite sure how we are going to top this morning’s trip. The weather is calm and sunny and as far as the lagoon is concerned, it can’t get much better. We are seeing lots of whales and dolphins so far here. I will leave it at that and hope for a GOBSMACKED afternoon.
Capt Art

2011-02-10T12:00:50-08:00February 10th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 February 9 Islas San Benito

Hello whalewatchers,
Today was a great day with awesome weather– sunny skies and no wind– and calm seas. Everyone enjoyed Islas San Benito and had great viewing of Guadalupe fur seals from the skiffs on the way to the island. And everyone saw all the classic behaviors associated with northern elephant seals such as mating, males fighting, nursing pups — all on the main beach behind the village.
It was a great day for a hike with perfect temperatures. So a good time was had by all.
We are headed to Laguna San Ignacio and we hope to arrive around 8am.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

2011-02-21T16:39:11-08:00February 10th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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Tour #2 Feb 8 Islas Todos Santos and offshore

Hello whalewatchers,
We started our trip with some great sightings before we got to our first destination of Islas Todos Santos. I hope this an omen for things to come on this trip! We saw our first whale right after leaving our Mexican clearance in Ensenada, and it was a blue whale! I don’t recall seeing blue whales this far north at this time of the year. After a while we lost track of the blue whale as the conditions were very gray with the early light and overcast. We saw another whale and thought it might be the blue whale, but it was a fin whale and so we spent time with the fin. We had great looks at both whales and that was before 8 am.
We travelled to Islas Todos Santos and saw some pinnepeds: northern elephant seals and harbor seals. There were also oystercatchers and nesting brown pelicans .
We left there and started south. We soon came across a group of Risso’s dolphins and had great looks at them. Travelling a little further south, we saw another smaller group of Risso’s.

The highlight of the afternoon was an area of surface feeding fin whales. One group of five whales in particular stayed at the surface for a long time and we had them close to the boat. They were feeding on the big balls of krill. There were hundreds of Cassin’s auklets in the area too.  We had to break off and continue south to keep to our schedule.
We did see a small group of short-beaked common dolphin, a red-billed tropic bird and a laysan albatross in the distance.
What a remarkable day for our first day! Looking forward to tomorrow at Islas San Benito.
Capt Art

2020-07-15T16:35:25-07:00February 8th, 2011|Trip Reports|
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