Islas Rasa and San Esteban
Clouds of flying seabirds clamored around Isla Rasa as we approached our anchorage just before breakfast. Heerman’s gulls and elegant terns fluttered about the ship as they navigated to and from 115 acre Rasa, the hub of the breeding season for a half million birds, or 95% of both species.
Ashore, we walked among the nesting birds, escorted by Enriqueta Velarde, PhD who has lived and collected data on the island during the breeding season for 23 years. The birds constantly called at us and at one another as we walked among nesting Heerman’s gulls toward an overlook of the more skittish elegant terns. They nest in an impossibly dense shoulder-to-shoulder cluster of about 200,000 loudly squabbling birds.
At one point, Heerman’s gulls flew up and flowed off the rocks in a huge swarm and we momentarily spotted the suspected culprit – a peregrine falcon shopping for a mid-morning snack. It was unsuccessful in this attempt to hunt one of the birds in flight but made for a spectacular show in its habitual perusal of the flocks.
Later in the day we landed on Isla San Esteban. The resident lizard fauna made only flash appearances but we enjoyed the perfect Sonoran desert evening. Birds sang their last notes of the day as we meandered up a sandy arroyo, examining the plant life of the “garden of north American deserts.”
While out on our exploration, we encountered Tom Bowen, an anthropologist and author of the book, “Unknown Island” which chronicles the human history of Isla San Esteban. He and Patty West are doing a botanical survey of the island and were just finishing a twelve mile hike when we met them.
They happily agreed to come aboard for showers and drinks and dinner and afterward, they talked with us about their research on the island. From Rasa to San Esteban we had gained an up-close look at the uniqueness of these isolated islands in the Gulf of California – two gems within the archipelago that is often called “Mexico’s Galapagos.”
Clouds of flying seabirds clamored around Isla Rasa as we approached our anchorage just before breakfast. Heerman’s gulls and elegant terns fluttered about the ship as they navigated to and from 115 acre Rasa, the hub of the breeding season for a half million birds, or 95% of both species.
Ashore, we walked among the nesting birds, escorted by Enriqueta Velarde, PhD who has lived and collected data on the island during the breeding season for 23 years. The birds constantly called at us and at one another as we walked among nesting Heerman’s gulls toward an overlook of the more skittish elegant terns. They nest in an impossibly dense shoulder-to-shoulder cluster of about 200,000 loudly squabbling birds.
At one point, Heerman’s gulls flew up and flowed off the rocks in a huge swarm and we momentarily spotted the suspected culprit – a peregrine falcon shopping for a mid-morning snack. It was unsuccessful in this attempt to hunt one of the birds in flight but made for a spectacular show in its habitual perusal of the flocks.
Later in the day we landed on Isla San Esteban. The resident lizard fauna made only flash appearances but we enjoyed the perfect Sonoran desert evening. Birds sang their last notes of the day as we meandered up a sandy arroyo, examining the plant life of the “garden of north American deserts.”
While out on our exploration, we encountered Tom Bowen, an anthropologist and author of the book, “Unknown Island” which chronicles the human history of Isla San Esteban. He and Patty West are doing a botanical survey of the island and were just finishing a twelve mile hike when we met them.
They happily agreed to come aboard for showers and drinks and dinner and afterward, they talked with us about their research on the island. From Rasa to San Esteban we had gained an up-close look at the uniqueness of these isolated islands in the Gulf of California – two gems within the archipelago that is often called “Mexico’s Galapagos.”
