Bahia Magdalena
After a wild night at sea attempting to travel north to San Ignacio Lagoon, we turned around and headed back into the protection of Magdalena Bay. Once within the bay we again turned north and made our way along the calm waters of the Hull Canal to reach Boca de Solidad, another opening into the Pacific and also an important gray whale calving area. Along the way north in the Hull Canal, a narrow waterway bordered by mangroves and mudflats, many of us stood on the windy deck and identified different species of shorebirds wading along the shore; herons, egrets, white ibis, and others. Several coyotes were also spotted trotting across the open shorelines.
When we arrived at Boca de Solidad in the mid-afternoon, we split into two groups, one going ashore to wander among the beach dunes that bordered the Pacific, and the others riding out in the Zodiacs to search for gray whales. We found several pairs of gray whale cows and calves. Each young calf, perhaps only a month or two old, was swimming right alongside its massive mother. The adult and calf whales were swimming in the strong currents at the open mouth of the lagoon where the young whales can build strength in preparation for their long migration north to Alaska, a many thousand mile journey that they would soon embark on together. In their strange and inexplicable ways, one pair of whales decided to display “friendly” behavior toward the Zodiacs while our second group was out whale watching. In the photo, a calf whale is lifting its head out of the water as it approaches eager groups of people dangling over the edge of a Zodiac.
After a wild night at sea attempting to travel north to San Ignacio Lagoon, we turned around and headed back into the protection of Magdalena Bay. Once within the bay we again turned north and made our way along the calm waters of the Hull Canal to reach Boca de Solidad, another opening into the Pacific and also an important gray whale calving area. Along the way north in the Hull Canal, a narrow waterway bordered by mangroves and mudflats, many of us stood on the windy deck and identified different species of shorebirds wading along the shore; herons, egrets, white ibis, and others. Several coyotes were also spotted trotting across the open shorelines.
When we arrived at Boca de Solidad in the mid-afternoon, we split into two groups, one going ashore to wander among the beach dunes that bordered the Pacific, and the others riding out in the Zodiacs to search for gray whales. We found several pairs of gray whale cows and calves. Each young calf, perhaps only a month or two old, was swimming right alongside its massive mother. The adult and calf whales were swimming in the strong currents at the open mouth of the lagoon where the young whales can build strength in preparation for their long migration north to Alaska, a many thousand mile journey that they would soon embark on together. In their strange and inexplicable ways, one pair of whales decided to display “friendly” behavior toward the Zodiacs while our second group was out whale watching. In the photo, a calf whale is lifting its head out of the water as it approaches eager groups of people dangling over the edge of a Zodiac.
