Trip Reports

Hello whalewatchers,
Today’s weather is fabulous with sunny skies and calm seas. We  started our day at the south end of Isla San Jose with a trip into the mangroves. The skiffs spent three hours in the mangroves and had a wonderful trip with lots of birds to see.
We left there and headed up the San Jose channel looking for whales and dolphin. At the northern end we found a fin whale and had great up close looks. A little north of that we found a dwarf sperm whale surface right next to us and we were able to have a great look at it. We saw two other dwarf sperm whales as well today. It’s always great to see that species!
We saw four tropicbirds, had great looks at Craveri’s murrerlets on the water with adults and chicks, one long-tailed jaeger, and a large flock of mixed red and red necked phalaropes. Towards the end or the day we saw another fin whale.
We headed north to Isla Santa Catalina for the night and to go ashore early tomorrow.
Capt Art

p.s. The photo is Chef Charles’ shot of a dwarf sperm whale cow and calf

Hello whalewatchers,
We had breezy conditions today, but despite the wind we a great day of sightings. We had great birding throughout the day with hundreds of pink-footed and sooty shearwaters, sabine gulls, Craveri’s murrelets, frigatebirds, phalaropes, albatross, tropicbirds, and jaegers–a great day of seabirds.
We had a good look at a large blue whale, six humpbacks, and six Bryde’s whales. At the end of the day we had a group of 1000 common dolphin with a wonderful sunset. Not a bad day!
Looking forward to a warmer day tomorrow,
Capt Art

Hello whalewatchers:
We had a great day at Islas San Benito. The weather was great with clear skies and a brisk wind, but warm out of the wind.  Albatross Alley kept producing after my first report. At one point we had 17 albatrosses in our wake–incredible!. Out total before arriving at the island was 40 birds–28 black-footed and 12 laysan albatross. What a start to our day!
At the island, we had a skiff ride to view Guadalupe fur seals and then we landed on the island. There were fewer fur seals but more elephant seals, with more females returning to molt. The island is very dry still this spring. At the top of the island there is a group of about 12 horned larks that hiker enjoyed.
Everyone had a good day and now we are traveling south to Laguna San Ignacio.
More tomorrow,
Capt Art

Hello whalewatchers,
Today was our first day of our last trip this season and what a day we had! It all started with a quick stop at Islas Todo Santos for a view of three different pinnipeds, pelagic comorant, oystercatchers, perregrin falcon, nesting brown pelicans, and the island was in full bloom with the yellow flowers (Encelia) covering half the island.
Travelling south we saw a group of short-beaked common dolphin. several alcids, migrating common loons, migrating brandt geese, sooty shearwaters, red phalaropes, and black-footed albatross. That was before lunch.

During lunch we spotted multiple spouts in the distance and when we arrived in the area, we were amazed at the life there. There were three different species of baleen whales including three blue whales , two of them were a cow and calf pair. The single whale fluked mulitple times and had a very distinct tail fluke–it was very pretty. The cow also was a fluker and a much darker animal, and the calf was a normal light grayish color.  There were also two fin whales and two humpback whales (that did some breaching, tail lobbing and flipper flapping while we were viewing the blue whales). Sadly we are on a schedule and had to break off and continue south.
What a great start to our trip!
More tomorow from Islas San Benitos,
Capt Art