Orcas are an uncommon sighting for our tours in the Sea of Cortez and this group got to see them TWICE! A group of 6 animals, including a mother/calf pair, visited the boat on 31 Jan and again on 2 Feb. It looks like our passengers are taking home some wonderful photos!
Howdy whalewatchers:
Northern cardinal in Baja
We had a great morning ashore at Santa Catalina Island with a nice walk up the arroyo for viewing giant cardon cactus, Northern cardinals, Gila woodpeckers, black-throated sparrows, and white winged doves. (Click here for a review of the Birds of Baja.)
Afterwards there was a snorkel and a skiff ride along the coast of the island where there were some bottlenose dolphins interacting with the skiffs.
Distant view of orcas in Sea of Cortez
The weather is calm and we’re headed toward a small pod of killer whales to start our afternoon whalewatching.
This afternoon we had an incredible look at killer whales! They came over to the boat and swam around under and all around the boat, swimming upside down even.
We are now anchored up for the night at Punta Colorado at Isla San Jose where we will be going ashore and going for a another nice snorkel.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher
Howdy whalewatchers,
This morning we went ashore Isla San Francisco for an exploration walk and returned to go in the water for a snorkel. The swimmers had really good visibility and saw lots of garden eels, sergeant majors, giant damselfish and cornetfish, just to name a few.
We’re having lunch while on the anchor and moving up further into Sea of Cortez this afternoon.
Our on-board experts in Ocean Plastics: Jo Ruxton and Bonnie Monteleone.
Howdy “blue whale lovers,”
We are enjoying a nice break from some windy weather and saw our first blue whale!
We’re off to our next destination for tomorrow and hoping to capitalize on the calm seas in our future.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher
Howdy whalewatchers,
Even more humpback whales to observe today! We got to see the things that humpbacks do breaching, flipper flapping, and tail lobbing.
Flipper flapping!
The weather was nice this morning, but the wind has come up so we’re headed to Los Frailes to go for a beach walk and the first snorkel of our trip.
Capt Aaron and Team Searcher
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
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
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.
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
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.
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!
