Pacific Ocean & Bahia Magdalena
Images of a day on sea and sand:
Arising on a calm Pacific, a gentle swell lifting our bow and binoculars.
A thin haze of moist air, repeated most mornings, nurturing the coastal fog-desert of Baja California.
Singular thick plumes of moist air - gray whales surfacing and blowing, their incredible journey north soon to follow.
Murrelets in pairs and trios; tiny, shapely black and white, flying swiftly away or diving in retreat – Craveri’s!
Laughter and delight as long-beaked common dolphins find the sweet spot of our ship’s prow; a free ride for them, free photos and profound memories for us.
Exiting the open ocean at La Entrada, to be intercepted by yet another cetacean - Pacific white-sided dolphins - shunning our bow, preferring our stern, surfing our wake.
The mountainous slopes of Isla Santa Margarita and Isla Magdalena – exotic terrain scraped off the plunging Pacific plate as it is overwhelmed by the North American plate.
Shearwaters slope-soaring swiftly along the swells, some with pink feet, others with black vents.
Cormorants in nuptial dress, immaculate in black, blue and thin white – Brandt’s!
Digital images of seabird ecology; a mobile life on and in the harsh oceans of this tiny planet.
Dynamic sand grains moved by water, by wind, and again by water; from roaring ocean surf to quiet lagoon shores. Barchan dunes. Transverse dunes. Ripples.
Ephemeral footprints of larks, jackrabbits, coyotes, tiny rodents, lizards; soon to be expunged by tiny, tumbling grains of quartz, magnetite, granodiorite, phosphorite.
A quiet ride through a narrow waterway, mangrove-lined and replete with water birds; some escaping winter’s wrath, others the resident hosts.
The universe at night. Galaxies, constellations, stars, planets, black holes, nebulae; in numbers too cosmic to comprehend. Who can define infinity?
