The Midriff Islands, Gulf of California
We approached our day in the Midriff Islands determined to pack all that we could into this last day of our exceptional trip. We began with a pre-breakfast excursion on San Esteban Island in search of the giant Chuckwalla – a desert lizard with skin seemingly two sizes too large for its body – and morning birds. In the absence of large rattlesnakes the chuckwalla has evolved to exceptionally large size on this isolated oceanic island and is recognized as an island endemic species.
Following our breakfast we returned to the broad, sandy arroyo on San Esteban, this time to reach a site of human history. Here, beginning in 1877, the desert agave was collected and processed for the making of mescal, a popular beverage in Mexico and a step in the making of tequila. As we walked the morning sun warmed the desert and large spiny-tailed iguanas came out of their underground burrows and rock crevices to bask in the sun. As their body temperature gradually rises they climb slowly into the giant cardon cacti, as in the photo above, to feed among the developing flowers.
Our afternoon was spent at sea looking for … well, what more could we find? A spout was spotted … a peculiar, bushy spout … one that shot out at an angle. We had found a sperm whale – one of the most bizarre and at the same time majestic of all animals. This was a male, so identified by its enormous, oil-filled head and its solitary lifestyle. Sperm whales are the deepest divers of all of the marine mammals, descending a mile or more into the dark depths of the oceans in search of squid which, many believe, they disable with a giant pulse of sound that is focused by the oil-filled case. After such a deep dive … we timed them at over half an hour, and dives of 90 minutes have been recorded … the whales must spend time at the surface to repay the oxygen debt of the dive.
After spending time enthralled by the sperm whale we continued on for a late afternoon pass by Isla San Pedro Martir. This is an important island for the breeding of blue-footed and brown boobies, brown pelicans, and red-billed tropicbirds. The tropicbirds were engaged in their courtship flights: rapid, closely coordinated flights accompanied by loud, screeching vocalizations.
And then we departed. Could there possibly be one last rabbit in the hat of this incredible voyage? From the bow a large and active group of common dolphins was sighted, many of them leaping acrobatically. And there, beyond the dolphins, were more spouts. Many more spouts. Larger spouts associated with smaller spouts. We had come across a nursery group of sperm whales. We gathered on the bow for sunset, with puffs of vapor from sperm whales all around us, cheering each time a mother whale descended into the depths followed shortly by her tiny … at least by comparison … calf. Sperm whales throw their flukes into the air as they commence a deep dive, and that is our final image of this remarkable trip among the whales and wildlife of the Gulf of California.
