Ensenada Grande, 1/5/2018, National Geographic Sea Bird
Aboard the
National Geographic Sea Bird
Baja California
During our first day of exploration in the archipelago of Espiritu Santo, the National Geographic Sea Bird anchored at Ensenada Grande, the most beautiful of the island’s coves. A long hike took guests and naturalists to the heights of the eastern escarpment; with the magnificent Sea of Cortez as a background, we took few minutes of silence and meditation on the rim just to connect ourselves with nature. In the afternoon, exploration via kayaks, stand-up paddleboards and snorkeling allowed guests to discover some of the minute animals hidden on the rocky shores or in the water. A well-deserved dinner on shore, plus wine and beer and brownies, closed a full day of joy, wellness, and learning.
Adrian studied biology at the national Autonomous University of Mexico. In 1991 the Wildlife Preservation Trust of Jersey, on Britain's Channel Islands, awarded Adrian with a scholarship to its prestigious 16-week training program in Captive Manageme...
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The combination of a dark blue Sea of Cortez; cliffs of the La Giganta mountains painted pink by the first rays of the sun; and a magnificent full moon above the highest peaks created the perfect subject for our photography team this morning while navigating south of San Jose and San Francisco Islands. The chances for working on the different options that cameras provide were great in this unparalleled scenery of the Gulf of California, its islands, and the peninsular ranges. Hundreds of photos were taken before the call for breakfast. The National Geographic Sea Bird then sailed gently to Los Islotes, the morning’s destination. Once anchored at this important breeding haul-out for Baja Californian sea lions, our guests and staff promptly jumped into our expedition landing craft to cruise around the islets. The sea lions were in the water and on the rocks. Rafts of yearlings were formed and either followed or swirled around our rubber boats. To our delight, these fascinating animals cavorted all about and gave us endless opportunities for photographing them. In the water, we snorkeled amongst them and found they are very funny, acrobatic, and playful: they pulled on fins, and investigated snorkels with their small teeth. Right after lunch the National Geographic Sea Bird moved south to Punta Dispensa, the southernmost point of Espiritu Santo Archipelago. While sailing we discovered a school of dolphins and several blows in the distance. The exhalations resulted in an active group of three humpback whales. It must be said that we finished our exploration with a golden ribbon! The humpbacks (a female with calf and an escorting male) performed for most of the afternoon! The male delighted us the most with his powerful exhalations and breechings, but the baby also jumped out of the water a countless number of times. Both the male and the female got engaged in what is called tail lobbing, and for moments they performed in synchrony. Many different behaviors were observed, and after filling our camera cards and gathering memories, we continued our navigation for a nocturnal anchoring. We said goodbye to the whales and to the always fascinating Gulf of California.
This morning started in a wonderful way, with the full moon setting behind one of the most majestic sections of the Baja California peninsula, the El Mechudo range. The multicolored layers of volcanic ashes were clearly visible as the huge moon slowly set, just to glow with beautiful pastel colors as the sun rose a few minutes later in the opposite direction. Not a bad start, but then a couple of blows ignited everyone on deck, as two humpback whales surfaced to our port side. Almost immediately one of them breached twice out of the water, causing an explosion of camera clicks and excited shouting. All that before breakfast! We encountered a few more humpback whales a bit later as National Geographic Sea Bird made her way towards San Francisco Island, where we spent a great day. Kayakers explored the gorgeous half-moon bay and snorkelers enjoyed its very clear waters. Numerous big schools of half-beak, Mexican goatfish and other species surrounded those of us that got into the water. Purser Shawn and I went scuba diving in the same area to get underwater video to share with everybody on board; from the very beginning we knew that this was going to be a very pleasant dive: the water was particularly clear and we clearly saw the bottom from the surface 40 feet below. We encountered and filmed many different kinds of reef fishes and invertebrates, including crown-of-thorns sea stars, spinster wrasses, bumphead damselfishes, synapted sea cucumbers, and huge schools of spotttail grunts, blue-and-gold snappers, and Mexican goatfishes. Several tiny fishes, like the saber-toothed blenny, the redhead, and blue-banded gobies, showed themselves an allowed me film them. During the afternoon we continued our explorations of the island and hikers, snorkelers and photographers climbed hills, visited the salt deposits made by local fishermen and did some tide-pooling. Later, we enjoyed an excellent dinner ashore and admired the moonrise as another beautiful day in Baja California came to an end.
