Isla San Esteban and Isla Rasa, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Early in the morning, and we were already anchored off Isla San Esteban where we landed after breakfast to enjoy medium and long hikes into the arroyo to meet cacti, flowering ironwood trees, green mesquites and two species of iguanas, endemic to the island: the spiny-tailed iguana and the pinto chuckwalla. As we walked around this arroyo or dry riverbed, we saw some birds, different plants and the cardones or giant cacti, loaded with fruit soon to be ripe and delicious. At midmorning, we left this island and headed to Isla Rasa.
Thousands, hundreds of thousands of birds, birds everywhere. Heerman gulls, royal terns, elegant terns. All with their chicks. Chicks running around everywhere. Yes, this is Isla Rasa during these four months around summer. 95% of all the Heerman’s gulls and elegant terns of the world nesting in this small flat island called Rasa, one of the Midriff islands of the Gulf of California. The sound their calls make is loud. Fantastic! And then, an infamous red-tailed hawk flew around, and almost all of these hundreds of thousands of birds took off, as the hawks caught their prey on the ground. Dr. Enriqueta Velarde, who has been living on the island these 3 to 4 months a year for 28 continuous years, explained all these facts to us as we slowly walked up a path between the nests and squawking birds to a bluff where we had the best view of the great part of the colony of these birds. Then we had less harrowing Zodiac tours around the island and around a nearby island called Rasito, where, besides birds, there are a good number of California sea lions, which lazily lifted their heads to peer at us as we went by. What a great beginning to our trip!
Early in the morning, and we were already anchored off Isla San Esteban where we landed after breakfast to enjoy medium and long hikes into the arroyo to meet cacti, flowering ironwood trees, green mesquites and two species of iguanas, endemic to the island: the spiny-tailed iguana and the pinto chuckwalla. As we walked around this arroyo or dry riverbed, we saw some birds, different plants and the cardones or giant cacti, loaded with fruit soon to be ripe and delicious. At midmorning, we left this island and headed to Isla Rasa.
Thousands, hundreds of thousands of birds, birds everywhere. Heerman gulls, royal terns, elegant terns. All with their chicks. Chicks running around everywhere. Yes, this is Isla Rasa during these four months around summer. 95% of all the Heerman’s gulls and elegant terns of the world nesting in this small flat island called Rasa, one of the Midriff islands of the Gulf of California. The sound their calls make is loud. Fantastic! And then, an infamous red-tailed hawk flew around, and almost all of these hundreds of thousands of birds took off, as the hawks caught their prey on the ground. Dr. Enriqueta Velarde, who has been living on the island these 3 to 4 months a year for 28 continuous years, explained all these facts to us as we slowly walked up a path between the nests and squawking birds to a bluff where we had the best view of the great part of the colony of these birds. Then we had less harrowing Zodiac tours around the island and around a nearby island called Rasito, where, besides birds, there are a good number of California sea lions, which lazily lifted their heads to peer at us as we went by. What a great beginning to our trip!
