Gorda Banks to Cabo San Lucas
“Whoa, what’s that!?” A big colorful songbird comes out of hiding and lands in the thorn scrub of our nature walk. “It’s a Scott’s Oriole! Look, before it disappears!” The bird stays and stays, initially uttering a scratchy call note, and after a few minutes tuning up to a series of fluty notes in it’s mate-attracting song. Everyone in both groups of the nature walk has an eye-full, and the black-hooded yellow bird stays a good ten minutes in plain sight. As we turn to continue walking we realize the female oriole has been perched right behind our excited group. The afternoon nature walk begins to pick up momentum from here on, and cactus wrens vie with the endemic gray thrasher for our attention in the arroyo. Butterflies ranging from big black and blue swallowtails to tiny gray hairstreaks, queens and sulfurs keep us on alert. It is hard to tear away from so much good bird watching. Twenty-five species delight the group, but it’s the quality of our observations, not the numbers, that give us such a special experience.
Our day began with animals of a different scale with mother and calf pairs of humpback whales before breakfast. We watched as first they blew in the distance, then one pair joined another, and finally they were well within our range to listen to their exhalation blows just ahead of the ship. A few bottlenose dolphins appeared, as did pink-footed shearwaters gliding over the water’s surface.
It was a full morning of whale-watching; followed by a snorkel briefing in preparation for our afternoon and a slide program on the world of birds by our natural history staff. After lunch we explored Cabo San Lucas for a short time and got some of the shopping bug out of our systems admiring the colorful handicrafts made by artisans all over Mexico. The second part of the afternoon took some of us out to the beach to enjoy the fish world with our snorkel gear while the birds bewitched others.
As we left the harbor of Cabo San Lucas we went out to Friar’s Rock and the Arch to admire the sunset and made a final salute to the avian world watching the wings of frigatebirds and pelicans whirl in the air, as white-throated swift and a peregrine falcon showed off the speed a long sharp wing can achieve. Wind raced in gusts over the water, and still the birds were masters of the air.
“Whoa, what’s that!?” A big colorful songbird comes out of hiding and lands in the thorn scrub of our nature walk. “It’s a Scott’s Oriole! Look, before it disappears!” The bird stays and stays, initially uttering a scratchy call note, and after a few minutes tuning up to a series of fluty notes in it’s mate-attracting song. Everyone in both groups of the nature walk has an eye-full, and the black-hooded yellow bird stays a good ten minutes in plain sight. As we turn to continue walking we realize the female oriole has been perched right behind our excited group. The afternoon nature walk begins to pick up momentum from here on, and cactus wrens vie with the endemic gray thrasher for our attention in the arroyo. Butterflies ranging from big black and blue swallowtails to tiny gray hairstreaks, queens and sulfurs keep us on alert. It is hard to tear away from so much good bird watching. Twenty-five species delight the group, but it’s the quality of our observations, not the numbers, that give us such a special experience.
Our day began with animals of a different scale with mother and calf pairs of humpback whales before breakfast. We watched as first they blew in the distance, then one pair joined another, and finally they were well within our range to listen to their exhalation blows just ahead of the ship. A few bottlenose dolphins appeared, as did pink-footed shearwaters gliding over the water’s surface.
It was a full morning of whale-watching; followed by a snorkel briefing in preparation for our afternoon and a slide program on the world of birds by our natural history staff. After lunch we explored Cabo San Lucas for a short time and got some of the shopping bug out of our systems admiring the colorful handicrafts made by artisans all over Mexico. The second part of the afternoon took some of us out to the beach to enjoy the fish world with our snorkel gear while the birds bewitched others.
As we left the harbor of Cabo San Lucas we went out to Friar’s Rock and the Arch to admire the sunset and made a final salute to the avian world watching the wings of frigatebirds and pelicans whirl in the air, as white-throated swift and a peregrine falcon showed off the speed a long sharp wing can achieve. Wind raced in gusts over the water, and still the birds were masters of the air.
