Give yourself a gift of wildlife in 2018!
Many thanks to Chris Earley for use of his photo (gray whale and whalewatchers)!
Hello whale-and bird-watchers:
Underwater bottlenose dolphins @ Moira Johnston
You are invited! Grab the opportunity to enjoy world-class whalewatching in Baja California, including Laguna San Ignacio, the winter birthing/mating destination for gray whales.
Two tours are booked directly through our office and are open for booking.
- Feb 7-18 (only a few spots left!)
- March 24-April 4
I was reminded how much I learned on the trip, as well as how lucky and privileged we were to see so many fantastic cetaceans, pinnipeds, birds and fish, plus a reptile or two!
-Adrian Johnson, April 2017 passenger (pictured on left)
A shady rest between whale/bird sightings! Photo by Helen Bryon (Traveling Naturalist)
whale, followed by a big group of bottlenose dolphin. While we always hope to see this on each of our trips – it doesn’t actually happen that often. The dolphins were showing off their acrobatics on the bow and in the stern wake repeatedly. We spent over an hour with this group and it was awesome! Later on, we got to see a large group of common dolphin, who also gave us a great show. We continue on and came across some sea turtles and even more dolphins, another group of bottlenose. Today’s theme was clearly “day of the dolphin.”
We head to Isla Catalina for a snorkel session, a crazy coastal cruise and a hike. The snorkel session was great with lots of fish and warm water. The hike is always good with great lighting on the cactus. The cardon cactus have bloomed and are now with fruit and close to going to seed. We found 3 rattleless rattle snakes , a few emerald tailed lizard and desert iguana’s. The photo is of the biggest cardon cactus in the arroyo.
memorable. This morning was a great example. The lighting on the red sandstone cliff when the sun first comes up is remarkable. After breakfast, we went for a walk on the island, then enjoyed a snorkel session. Everyone had an amazing time with both activities.
always a treat to see baby dolphins!
the first for our snorkelers and the second for our observers – who also saw a humpback whale! We departed the whale shark zone and traveled north towards Isla Espiritu Santo and 
Isla Partida. In transit, we came across an area of frigatebirds diving on a bait ball with pelicans, gulls and a few shearwaters. It was great to see them all feeding.
snorkel session.
If that wasn’t enough excitement already, we then came across a cow, calf and escort trio of humpbacks. They were very active with the calf breaching repeatedly and the cow lob tailing over and over again! The calf and the escort were thrashing their tails around as well. That sighting was perhaps even more spectacular than the first trio we saw.
getting to Bahia Los Frailes. Deciding to continue north in hopes of more whale sightings, we were rewarded with another pair of humpbacks that breached repeatedly for over an hour. Sometimes both whales at once. We don’t get see that very often. The power of these whales is remarkable.
for a long time! It was a medium size blue whale that stayed in the same area, we assume feeding as there was lots of life on the sounder and sonar. The blue whale is what many of our whale watchers are anxious to see on the trip, so this sighting was certainly was a delight for many on the boat! The photo is a blue whale at the surface close to the bow.
had their fill! We also took a quick trip to the beach to view the whale bones and shells. It is always great to be on a beach where your footprints are the only ones.
