Boca de Soledad
Today was a day that will forever leave an imprint on our hearts and minds. In life’s quest to experience wild things in wild places, we have come to the Baja Peninsula to not only experience the beauty of the Sonoran desert, but one of the most amazing migrations in the animal kingdom.
Setting out before breakfast from the National Geographic Sea Bird the first groups headed for the Boca de Soledad to see what they could find in the calm waters of Magdalena Bay. Blessed by little wind and calm seas, we were able to easily access the entrance (and exit) that the Gray Whales use when using this lagoon for both calving and for mating. Having made a 6,000 mile migration from the high and Arctic Seas of the Bering and Chukchi, some of the Eastern North Pacific population make this warm and calm oasis their winter home. Safe from predators but devoid of food, these baleen whales subsist in the lagoons off the fat they have gained feeding in the rich productive waters of the north.
Unlike other baleen whales Gray Whales are benthic (bottom) feeders and, sucking sediment from the sea floor, capture small invertebrates, expelling residual sediment and particles through their baleen. Eating an unfathomable ton of food a day on their feeding grounds allows these animals to not only migrate from Alaska and Russia (to and fro) but to give birth and nurse in the protected lagoons of the Baja Peninsula.
After exploring the Boca by Zodiac we touched tierra firme for a meander amongst the desert and dunes. Crossing the narrow peninsula we were awarded great views of the Boca de Soledad and the Pacific. In the tracks of jackrabbit, coyote and crab we returned to the playa and ship and over lunch compared the accounts of the morning.
As the tides had changed it seemed that our luck had as well, as our afternoon amongst the Gray Whales was an experience that most of us had hoped for. Cow and calf pairs near the mouth and navigational light gave us interactions both playful and curious. Swimming under if not next to the Zodiac, the “friendlies” actually allowed a lucky few to touch them while the rest of us were awed by an animal once endangered allowing us such close proximity.
We will never forget our experiences in Magdalena Bay and will pray that the morning is as whale-full!!!!!
Today was a day that will forever leave an imprint on our hearts and minds. In life’s quest to experience wild things in wild places, we have come to the Baja Peninsula to not only experience the beauty of the Sonoran desert, but one of the most amazing migrations in the animal kingdom.
Setting out before breakfast from the National Geographic Sea Bird the first groups headed for the Boca de Soledad to see what they could find in the calm waters of Magdalena Bay. Blessed by little wind and calm seas, we were able to easily access the entrance (and exit) that the Gray Whales use when using this lagoon for both calving and for mating. Having made a 6,000 mile migration from the high and Arctic Seas of the Bering and Chukchi, some of the Eastern North Pacific population make this warm and calm oasis their winter home. Safe from predators but devoid of food, these baleen whales subsist in the lagoons off the fat they have gained feeding in the rich productive waters of the north.
Unlike other baleen whales Gray Whales are benthic (bottom) feeders and, sucking sediment from the sea floor, capture small invertebrates, expelling residual sediment and particles through their baleen. Eating an unfathomable ton of food a day on their feeding grounds allows these animals to not only migrate from Alaska and Russia (to and fro) but to give birth and nurse in the protected lagoons of the Baja Peninsula.
After exploring the Boca by Zodiac we touched tierra firme for a meander amongst the desert and dunes. Crossing the narrow peninsula we were awarded great views of the Boca de Soledad and the Pacific. In the tracks of jackrabbit, coyote and crab we returned to the playa and ship and over lunch compared the accounts of the morning.
As the tides had changed it seemed that our luck had as well, as our afternoon amongst the Gray Whales was an experience that most of us had hoped for. Cow and calf pairs near the mouth and navigational light gave us interactions both playful and curious. Swimming under if not next to the Zodiac, the “friendlies” actually allowed a lucky few to touch them while the rest of us were awed by an animal once endangered allowing us such close proximity.
We will never forget our experiences in Magdalena Bay and will pray that the morning is as whale-full!!!!!
