Magdalena Bay, Baja California Sur
As I look at today’s photo, I am reminded of the immense diversity of wildlife in the areas that we, aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion, are exposed to each day. How lucky we are!
Today the dawn greeted us just off Punta Tosca on the southern end of Isla Santa Margarita. The trip north through the night from yesterday’s activities in the Cabo San Lucas area was very nice to us indeed—a soft, gentle roll over a calm Pacific sea. Our first sighting was of a humpback whale leisurely throwing its beautiful flukes into the air as it dove down into the clear, blue waters of the Pacific. Common dolphins, California sea lions, Craveri’s Murrelets and more humpback whales greeted us on our path northward along the Baja shore. Once inside Magdalena Bay about a dozen gray whales, alone or in pairs, puffed their misty spouts into the calm morning sky and threw their flukes into the air as they dove into the blue depths of the Bay. As we made our way further northward, we sighted a very unusual sight inside Magdalena Bay, a group of about 40 Pacific white-sided dolphins swimming leisurely along and mixed with porposing California sea lions. It was then that our ship’s doctor captured this picture of a small group of sea lions resting on the surface and a gray whale showing its flukes right in front of them. What an incredible morning we had.
Right after lunch the ship was anchored along the sand dunes that make up a major part of Isla Magdalena and we went ashore to walk the half mile to the Pacific shore. The sun was warm; yet the wind was cool enough to make our walk very pleasant over the dunes and among the tenacious dune plants to the beach we call ‘Sand Dollar Beach’. This amazing beach stretches for about 30 miles along the Pacific coast and is as pristine as any beach can possibly be. There are no structures or people anywhere—just the shells, sand dollars, bones, sounds of the surf beating against the shore and the solitude, the blessed solitude! Back aboard the ship, we weighed anchor and continued our journey northward through the mangrove lined Hull Canal with a wide variety of birds in the vegetation and along the mudflats that line the canal at this lower tidal level. Herons, egrets, ibises, ospreys, sandpipers, ducks, cormorants and geese so abundant that even our reluctant birders were up on deck enjoying this dramatic spectacle of diversity. How could we be anything but grateful for the opportunity to visit and experience this incredible landscape and the wildlife held within it?
As I look at today’s photo, I am reminded of the immense diversity of wildlife in the areas that we, aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion, are exposed to each day. How lucky we are!
Today the dawn greeted us just off Punta Tosca on the southern end of Isla Santa Margarita. The trip north through the night from yesterday’s activities in the Cabo San Lucas area was very nice to us indeed—a soft, gentle roll over a calm Pacific sea. Our first sighting was of a humpback whale leisurely throwing its beautiful flukes into the air as it dove down into the clear, blue waters of the Pacific. Common dolphins, California sea lions, Craveri’s Murrelets and more humpback whales greeted us on our path northward along the Baja shore. Once inside Magdalena Bay about a dozen gray whales, alone or in pairs, puffed their misty spouts into the calm morning sky and threw their flukes into the air as they dove into the blue depths of the Bay. As we made our way further northward, we sighted a very unusual sight inside Magdalena Bay, a group of about 40 Pacific white-sided dolphins swimming leisurely along and mixed with porposing California sea lions. It was then that our ship’s doctor captured this picture of a small group of sea lions resting on the surface and a gray whale showing its flukes right in front of them. What an incredible morning we had.
Right after lunch the ship was anchored along the sand dunes that make up a major part of Isla Magdalena and we went ashore to walk the half mile to the Pacific shore. The sun was warm; yet the wind was cool enough to make our walk very pleasant over the dunes and among the tenacious dune plants to the beach we call ‘Sand Dollar Beach’. This amazing beach stretches for about 30 miles along the Pacific coast and is as pristine as any beach can possibly be. There are no structures or people anywhere—just the shells, sand dollars, bones, sounds of the surf beating against the shore and the solitude, the blessed solitude! Back aboard the ship, we weighed anchor and continued our journey northward through the mangrove lined Hull Canal with a wide variety of birds in the vegetation and along the mudflats that line the canal at this lower tidal level. Herons, egrets, ibises, ospreys, sandpipers, ducks, cormorants and geese so abundant that even our reluctant birders were up on deck enjoying this dramatic spectacle of diversity. How could we be anything but grateful for the opportunity to visit and experience this incredible landscape and the wildlife held within it?
