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Trip Reports

Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – offshore Bahia Magdalena

Howdy whalewatchers,

It is a great morning here outside Bahia Magdalena, with breaching humpback whales, a few hundred long-beaked common dolphins, magnficent frigatebirds, masked and red-footed boobies, black-vented and pink-footed shearwaters. Oh, and green sea turtles for days! It’s a beautiful day on the ocean with barely any wind and clear sky.

Long-beaked common dolphins offshore Bahia Magdalena

Howdy whalewatchers, We’ve enjoyed steady sightings of humpbacks for most of the day. The weather is still very nice and we’re happy about that. We start our trek up into the Sea of Cortez tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 30th, 2018|Trip Reports|
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Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Laguna San Ignacio, day 2

Howdy whalewatchers,

We’re enjoying another beautiful morning here in the lagoon. The wind was up, but the spirits of going out to see a gray whale were even higher. It seems like there are more whales in the lagoon today, and we still have a whale rubbing on the anchor line giving a nice show to passing pangas and for those that chose to stay on the boat. The weather is getting better all the time so the afternoon passengers will have a nice outing.

Howdy whalewatchers,

It’s our final day in the lagoon and the wind backed off to make our final two trips nice. More whales are entering the lagoon so there was lots to look at. The group went to the the beach for a afternoon walk.

We’re now headed south to offshore all day looking for wildlife.

Capt “Howdy” Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 29th, 2018|Trip Reports|
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Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Laguna San Ignacio, day 1

Howdy whalewatchers,

We are enjoying a good first day here in Laguna San Ignacio. We are seeing courtship activity with the single whales that have arrived, along with the mother and calf pairs interacting. The weather is great!

It was a good afternoon for us here in the lagoon. the weather stayed nice for us. Everyone got a really close look at a few gray whales were gonna be here again tomorrow.

While the guests were out in the smaller pangas, the crew enjoyed a visitor at the boat!
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Editor’s note: They said good-bye to Dr Steve Swartz, as he left to set up his seasonal research camp in the lagoon. We look forward to receiving his updates from the field, as always. He is a treasure to us and to the gray whales.

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 28th, 2018|Trip Reports|
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Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Islas San Benito

Howdy whalewatchers:

We had a fantastic day at San Benito island today! The weather was perfect and there was lots to see. The group saw northern elephant seals, Guadalupe fur seals, and California sea lions. For plants, there was San Benito tarweed, cholla, island mallow, and agave.

Here is a picture of the island before we anchored.  We are still also seeing lots of southbound gray whales in our travel south. We’re headed to be in Laguna San Ignacio tomorrow.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 27th, 2018|Trip Reports|
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Tour #1 (Jan 23-Feb 3, 2018) – Offshore Ensenada, heading south

Howdy whalewatchers,

After our required immigration stop in Ensenda, we went to Islas Todo Santos for a brief look at elephant seals hauled out on the beach, and soon we saw our first whale!

Bull elephant seal and his harem, Islas San Benito

It was a southbound gray whale, and there were many more gray whales to be seen throughout the afternoon, all headed south. We’re also headed south in hopes of seeing some more life. The weather is great and we’re excited about what’s ahead.

Afternoon report

Common dolphins @ Sally Walton

We’ve seen lots of southbound gray whales this afternoon, and we had a brief look at a pair of Bryde’s whales. The finishing touch for the day was a large herd of short-beaked common dolphins that rode off into the sunset alongside Searcher.  We’re headed south for tomorrow’s activities.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Passengers resting up for the next exhausting whale sighting!

Editor’s note: We received the gray whale census in Laguna San Ignacio for January 18: There were 11 mother/calf pairs and 8 singles, for a total of 30 whales. The next census will be completed this week. Then numbers should grow as we are seeing large groups of gray whales migrating past southern California now.

2020-07-15T16:34:28-07:00January 25th, 2018|Trip Reports|
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2017 Pelagic Birding Sightings List just published!

Take a look at all the fantastic sightings from the 2017 5-day pelagic birding trip which we offer every year in early September: SIGHTINGS LIST

Many thanks to our guides Todd McGrath, Dave Pereksta, Dave Povey and Paul Guris!

2017-12-13T15:23:59-08:00December 13th, 2017|Trip Reports|
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2017 Pelagic Birding Trip Sep 4-8 Gallery

Many thanks to the participants of the 2017 Pelagic Trip. Please enjoy the images captured by our Searcher crew photogs, and do consider joining us next year for this fun trip!
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2020-07-15T16:34:29-07:00September 8th, 2017|Trip Reports|
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2017 Sep 4-8 Pelagic Birding Trip Sep 7 Evening Report

 Howdy birders,

This afternoon didn’t show any new birds for us, but we still saw lots in the windy conditions that we had: like jaegers chasing around some tern birds.  Trying to find a calm spot for the night to look for a couple of hours before we get back to the dock in the morning. It’s been a great trip this year.

Capt Aaron and Team Searcher

Long-tailed jaeger @ McGrath

2020-07-15T16:34:29-07:00September 8th, 2017|Trip Reports|
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2017 Sep 4-8 Pelagic Birding Trip Sep 7 Morning Report

Howdy birders,

We have seen several red-billed tropic birds and 4 Cook’s petrels for our morning.  The weather has come up more but the wind has the birds flying!

 

-Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

 

2017-09-07T15:57:45-07:00September 7th, 2017|News, Trip Reports|
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2017 Sep 4-8 Pelagic Birding Trip Sep 6 Evening Report

 

Howdy birders,

The afternoon was a little slower than the morning. (still nice weather though) We saw a distant flesh-footed shearwater and another Cook’s petrel.  We had some really good looks at a Townsend’s storm petrel today.

-Capt Aaron and the Searcher crew

Townsends storm-petrel @ McGrath

 

2020-07-15T16:34:29-07:00September 7th, 2017|Trip Reports|
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