Magdalena Bay
The National Geographic Sea Bird cruised into Magdalena Bay between two high metamorphic rock islands on each side of the beautiful entrance called La Entrada. All around us were California gray whales, with their white spouts visible for miles. Pelicans, terns, shearwaters, and other sea birds flew all around us, often diving into the sea from the air.
In the morning, we all went ashore to the narrow section of Magdalena Island to walk over the dunes to the ocean beach on the other side. Numerous plants such as sand verbena and wild tomatillo were incredibly growing on the dry sand dunes. The dunes had steep slip faces where the sand made small avalanches when we touched it. Numerous shell middens of clam and murex shells were evidence of past civilizations utilizing the rich resources of this ocean. On the Pacific Ocean beach, we saw the ocean waves hitting the flat beach with hundreds of huge sand dollars. Even more amazing were the small green phyllocope worms moving in a zigzag pattern across the pools of water. We also examined bones from sea lions and dolphins.
In the afternoon, the ship cruised up the narrow Hull Canal, a shallow waterway between the dune-covered barrier island and the mainland. We observed the bountiful bird life amongst the red mangroves on both sides of us. We saw hundreds of egrets, herons, kingfishers, ducks, ibis, and other shorebirds wading, flying, and feeding. There were a few California gray whales spouting and diving close to the ship. The most entertaining animals were the bottlenosed dolphins, which were bow riding in front of the ship several times throughout the afternoon.
As darkness fell across the scenery, we anchored in the calm waters of the beautiful waterway for a relaxing evening.
