Research Expedition to Sea of Cortez (November 8-21)

November 17

Hello all,

We started our day at Isla San Diego, a small island north of Isla San Jose. The list of plants surveyed on this island today is 4 pages long! We spent two hours there and it was a successful visit with some new records of plants by the botanists.

We traveled south to the north end of Isla San Jose where there is a lagoon with some dune habitat. Also on that beach there are sea turtle nests. People snorkeled there and reported seeing hundreds of garden eels!

We moved again to a spot where we went ashore and set the mammal and reptile traps that will remain overnight. After dinner a nocturnal team went ashore for more scorpion viewing. There are also four overnight campers enjoying the night skies.

Scott Tremor, San Diego Natural History Museum’s mammalogist and key investigator on this trip, shows us the device he is using to identify the Sea of Cortez bats. He is able to recording their sounds which identifies the species of bat flying around!