Magdalena Bay, Baja California
A cool wind blew over the choppy water of Magdalena Bay, and complex patterns in the high clouds played peek-a-boo with a setting moon. Soon after breakfast and a bumpy Zodiac ride, we were on Magdalena Island. A flock of semipalmated and snowy plovers picked around a loafing flock of western sandpipers. They were waiting for the tide to drop and expose their intertidal foraging areas as we passed them on our way to the Pacific. We made a circuitous route around and over the piles of sand the wind had pushed into organized heaps. These barchan dunes hold exquisite beauty in their mellow tans, rippling textures and sensual curves. We soon arrived at a spectacular crescent beach.
The shoreline of Sand Dollar Beach stretches for miles in a graceful, seemingly endless arc of solitude. Magnificent breakers destroyed themselves before us, surf ran up the beach onto our toes and wildness poured into our souls. The beachcombing produced a trove of treasures. Today we found two bottlenose dolphins and three long-beaked common dolphin skulls in perfect condition. One even had a complete set of cervical vertebrae. We left them for others to enjoy.
We cruised north in the afternoon through a mangrove-lined channel. Egrets and herons were replaced by sightings of bottlenose dolphins and cow and calf gray whales. On a popularity scale scored by the number of people on the bow, the whales won. One of the pairs is pictured in the photograph above. Although the calf may look like it has a case of acne, each dimple to the left of the blow hole contains a sensory hair. These are the only mammalian hairs left on whales, and they show more conspicuously on calves. Newborns have several fetal fold marks across their bodies. These wrinkles last about two weeks. Note that the area about 1 foot to the right of the blowholes is slightly indented, showing the remnants of one fold. This calf is small compared to its mom and must have been born a few days after the first of the year, because its fold marks are almost gone.
We passed Puerto Lopez Mateos and anchored near the boca, the mouth of the lagoon system .The complexity of the lightly overcast skies made the sunset into a prolonged event. As the yellows of day sank away, each cloud layer was progressively lit from below with a wash of glowing pink.
A cool wind blew over the choppy water of Magdalena Bay, and complex patterns in the high clouds played peek-a-boo with a setting moon. Soon after breakfast and a bumpy Zodiac ride, we were on Magdalena Island. A flock of semipalmated and snowy plovers picked around a loafing flock of western sandpipers. They were waiting for the tide to drop and expose their intertidal foraging areas as we passed them on our way to the Pacific. We made a circuitous route around and over the piles of sand the wind had pushed into organized heaps. These barchan dunes hold exquisite beauty in their mellow tans, rippling textures and sensual curves. We soon arrived at a spectacular crescent beach.
The shoreline of Sand Dollar Beach stretches for miles in a graceful, seemingly endless arc of solitude. Magnificent breakers destroyed themselves before us, surf ran up the beach onto our toes and wildness poured into our souls. The beachcombing produced a trove of treasures. Today we found two bottlenose dolphins and three long-beaked common dolphin skulls in perfect condition. One even had a complete set of cervical vertebrae. We left them for others to enjoy.
We cruised north in the afternoon through a mangrove-lined channel. Egrets and herons were replaced by sightings of bottlenose dolphins and cow and calf gray whales. On a popularity scale scored by the number of people on the bow, the whales won. One of the pairs is pictured in the photograph above. Although the calf may look like it has a case of acne, each dimple to the left of the blow hole contains a sensory hair. These are the only mammalian hairs left on whales, and they show more conspicuously on calves. Newborns have several fetal fold marks across their bodies. These wrinkles last about two weeks. Note that the area about 1 foot to the right of the blowholes is slightly indented, showing the remnants of one fold. This calf is small compared to its mom and must have been born a few days after the first of the year, because its fold marks are almost gone.
We passed Puerto Lopez Mateos and anchored near the boca, the mouth of the lagoon system .The complexity of the lightly overcast skies made the sunset into a prolonged event. As the yellows of day sank away, each cloud layer was progressively lit from below with a wash of glowing pink.
