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
Hello whalewatchers: What a start to trip #4! After leaving Ensenada we came across a group of about 50 false killer whales. We spent close to two hours with the group and had some up-close looks at them. We also were able to turn the hydro =phone on and hear these whales vocalize. It is a high pitched squeal. Very cool!
Since we spent so much time looking at these rare whales we decided to forgo our time at Isla Todos Santos. We started travelling south and saw some long-beaked common dolphin, northbound gray whales and a single humpback that was exhibiting an unusal behavior, going through floating pieces of kelp and opening its mouth. It appeared to be feeding on what ever was associated with the kelp. It also did some pectoral flipper flapping. The weather is awesome with calm seas and no wind.
More later, Team Searcher
UABCS reports 134 singles, 70 mothers and 70 calves in the lagoon this week!
Hello whalewatchers: We had another great day full of activity. We started at daylight with a skiff trip into the mangroves at San Jose. We travelled south towards Los Islotes and we saw some more common dolphin, a humpback and a group of 50 short-finned pilot whales. We arrived at Los Islotes at 11 am and did a skiff ride and a snorkel session before lunch. The finale was a blue whale that we were able to track and everyone had some great looks at a big blue whale and its flukes. A great way to end our trip. By the way the weather again was outstanding.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We’ve had a busy morning with lots of common dolphins, bottlenose dolphin, surface-feeding humpbacks, manta rays, a pair of fin whales, a close-up tropicbird, and a blue whale in the distance. Wow! We are enjoying sunny skies and breezy conditions. We are headed south with a stop somewhere on the peninsula later.
Today’s picture is one of the fin whales.
Team Searcher
Hello whalewatchers: We had an interesting afternoon today. The crew found a humpback whale in the distance and the closer we got the more life we saw–hundreds of blue-footed boobies, which is something different this year. We attribute it to the warmer water. The whale was feeding on the surface on the small bait fish in the area along with all the birds and hundreds of common dolphin. After a while the roof crew spotted another whale in the distance and it was a blue whale and another humpback in the same area. We spent the rest of the day with the blue whale. A very productive 2.5 hours….
Tonight’s picture is of a wavy barrel cactus bloom–very pretty.
Team Searcher
