Hello whalewatchers: Another great day in Laguna San Ignacio. The morning was fabulous with plenty of close encounters for all. The afternoon had great viewing and really good walk on the beach with lots to look at. We are headed south for tomorrow. I am including another picture of the cow and calf that visied us most of the morning, our friends. We are sharing with one of our pangas full of happy clients and our old friend Frederico.
Team Searcher
Sunrises, sunsets, the sun, the moon are all a wonder in Baja. Paul Jones, Searcher natuaralist, has taught us to appreciate the cloudy days too. Here are two of his photos from February, 2014. The bottom one was taken by Capt Art of cloud iridescence.
Hello whalewatchers: We are having a glorious morning in the lagoon. We have had a cow and calf visiting us off and on since yesterday afternoon, and they are with us now. It’s a pretty incredible event, with the pangas participating with our passengers and scrubbing the whale with a soft deck brush. It just doesn’t get any better than this in this magical place. Our newest crew member Andrew Viola (on loan from another boat) is pictured with the scrub brush in hand and a gray whale cow at the end of the brush getting scrubbed. Andrew had no idea what to expect when he came on this trip. He is glad he came.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We are having an incredible time off the stern of the boat with a cow and calf that is coming up to the boat and rubbing on the bottom. The crew is having fun with the deck brushes, scrubbing the nose of the cow and calf–great photo opportunities for all. We had this last trip at sunset and it is happening again. Wow! The picture is the calf and cow and a scrub brush. The calf is being scubbed by Capt Kenny.
Team Searcher
Click the photo for his on-camera interview:
Hello whalewatchers: We have a very enthusiastic group with us and even windy conditions this afternoon did not impede their willingness to get back in the pangas for the final trip of the day. I think everyone had a great day of whalewatching with all the usual behaviors associated with gray whales, including this breach!
Looking forward to tomorrow, Team Searcher
…for a NEW itinerary! Click here: Sea Of Cortez
Hello whalewatchers: We are having a great day in Laguna San Ignacio. Plenty of whales are here and we’ve had close encounters for all the passengers on their first trip. The cows and calves have taken over the observation zone. Latest census was 200 whales. More later, Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We had another great day at Islas San Benito with beautiful weather and a cool breeze to make it nice for hiking. The flowers are still in bloom for the most part. It appears that the female elephant seals have started to return so there are more seals hauled out on the beaches. Good viewing of ospreys was reported by the group as well.
After leaving the island we came across two blue whales and one was fluking. We hope to find fluking blue whales and so it is nice to see one this early in the trip. Hoefully we will come across another later on. We want to see a Bryde’s and a sei to complete the full complement of baleen whales we might see in Baja! We are off to a tremendous start on this trip.
We are headed to Laguna San Ignacio and will arrive tomorow morning after breakfast. Looking forward to visiting again. Today’s picture is self explanatory.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: After our incredible start, we continued to have good sightings. We saw northbound gray whales and humpback whales, and after lunch we had a curious minke whale that hung out with us for close to an hour. A little further south we saw multiple fin whales, and we had a good look at one fin whale with clean water and good lighting to see the distinctive white lower right jaw. We saw four baleen whales on our first day, along with both species of common dolphin and false killer whales–seven different species in one day is pretty remarkable.
The bird list is pretty long too, with the highlights including a Laysan albatross and Scripps murrelets. The weather is fantastic with almost no wind and calm seas.
More tomorrow from Islas San Benito, Team Searcher
