Boca de la Soledad, Magdalena Bay
A gray day was the perfect scenario for gray whale observation at Boca de la Soledad, the northernmost limit of Magdalena Bay. In fact, the sun never appeared as the normal yellowish-orange male star, with the contrasting blue of the sky in the background, but rather it sent its light through a completely closed and gray roof of clouds. Like yesterday, although heavier, a persistent rain accompanied our brave and enthusiastic guests, naturalists and crew during all the journeys of whale watching this day.
For most of us, the first minutes of the Zodiac tours were spent going from one group of grays to another a bit far away, since their variety of postures and movements were interpreted by us as courtship and possibly mating behavior. The males were engrossed in intensive female pursuits, while some females, not yet ready to breed, were simultaneously trying to avoid them. Other females, perhaps close to ovulation, were participating actively in a frenzy of dancing leading to reproduction. Nevertheless, we didn't observe any "pink floyd" that would confirm any possible suspects.
At times, our emotionally charged going-and-coming was interrupted by stationary moments to observe, here and there, the so-called spy-hopping episodes of certain whales. Like heavy ghosts breaking up the surface of the flat sea in their way upward, they briefly showed only the ochre, full-of-barnacles and lank snouts, to then sink slowly into the water's commotion. Of course, as always happens during these sudden and short appearances, nobody had a camera on hand. The varied activities that took place in the lagoon were followed by some whales that either were simply logging on the surface, making a short breath of joy, or were breaching at the distance splashing up tons of water and white foam.
Therefore, at a given moment we received a quietly-simulated radio call informing us about a female and a baby whale playing around a Zodiac. One by one, waiting in turn, we approached the first boat just to find that the mother was one of the so-called "friendly" whales. The following minutes were filled with hundreds of camera "clics", joy-charged shouts, sighs and vociferous expressions of pleasure since the whales were soclose to our Zodiacs.
During those long-desired moments, the humid atmosphere of the morning, plus the dark-brown look of the dunes and the hundreds of birds parked on the shores or the ones that adventured to cross the lagoon from one side to the other, were the final strokes of emotion to the handful of, happy people watching these whales.
In the afternoon cruises for whale watching, and after seeing again part of the behavior described for the morning, some of us experienced additional unique moments looking at one extremely playful baby whale that rolled endlessly upon his mother's blowholes and back. Like worthy ambassadors of their species, these whales closed our fantastic day by breaching together as much as three times!
We wondered if the night would gift us with dreams of powerful puffs of the mothers and the tiny puffs of the baby whales.
A gray day was the perfect scenario for gray whale observation at Boca de la Soledad, the northernmost limit of Magdalena Bay. In fact, the sun never appeared as the normal yellowish-orange male star, with the contrasting blue of the sky in the background, but rather it sent its light through a completely closed and gray roof of clouds. Like yesterday, although heavier, a persistent rain accompanied our brave and enthusiastic guests, naturalists and crew during all the journeys of whale watching this day.
For most of us, the first minutes of the Zodiac tours were spent going from one group of grays to another a bit far away, since their variety of postures and movements were interpreted by us as courtship and possibly mating behavior. The males were engrossed in intensive female pursuits, while some females, not yet ready to breed, were simultaneously trying to avoid them. Other females, perhaps close to ovulation, were participating actively in a frenzy of dancing leading to reproduction. Nevertheless, we didn't observe any "pink floyd" that would confirm any possible suspects.
At times, our emotionally charged going-and-coming was interrupted by stationary moments to observe, here and there, the so-called spy-hopping episodes of certain whales. Like heavy ghosts breaking up the surface of the flat sea in their way upward, they briefly showed only the ochre, full-of-barnacles and lank snouts, to then sink slowly into the water's commotion. Of course, as always happens during these sudden and short appearances, nobody had a camera on hand. The varied activities that took place in the lagoon were followed by some whales that either were simply logging on the surface, making a short breath of joy, or were breaching at the distance splashing up tons of water and white foam.
Therefore, at a given moment we received a quietly-simulated radio call informing us about a female and a baby whale playing around a Zodiac. One by one, waiting in turn, we approached the first boat just to find that the mother was one of the so-called "friendly" whales. The following minutes were filled with hundreds of camera "clics", joy-charged shouts, sighs and vociferous expressions of pleasure since the whales were soclose to our Zodiacs.
During those long-desired moments, the humid atmosphere of the morning, plus the dark-brown look of the dunes and the hundreds of birds parked on the shores or the ones that adventured to cross the lagoon from one side to the other, were the final strokes of emotion to the handful of, happy people watching these whales.
In the afternoon cruises for whale watching, and after seeing again part of the behavior described for the morning, some of us experienced additional unique moments looking at one extremely playful baby whale that rolled endlessly upon his mother's blowholes and back. Like worthy ambassadors of their species, these whales closed our fantastic day by breaching together as much as three times!
We wondered if the night would gift us with dreams of powerful puffs of the mothers and the tiny puffs of the baby whales.
