Bahía Concepción and Isla San Marcos, Baja California Sur
We took a bit of a holiday from the great whales and lesser dolphins this morning. Seabirds, kayaks and a delicious barbeque lunch were on the menu. After cruising north all night, we turned south shortly after watching a green-flash sunrise. Into Bahía Concepción we headed, rocking calmly, a north swell at our stern. Glowing overhead in the morning sun and greeting the early risers on deck were both elegant and royal terns. Immaculate Heermann’s gulls, decorated for the pending breeding season with lipstick-red bills, rose off the water as the Sea Bird bore down on them.
Casual Zodiac cruises around tiny Isla Guapa, a seabird nesting island tucked into this picturesque bay, took us close to brown pelicans and blue-footed and brown boobies. Sitting on nests were ospreys, regally perched atop the highest rocks, their home surrounded by fish-rich waters. All of these species are plunge-feeders. They search for prey from shoreline rocks or while on the wing, then dive suddenly. The pelicans and boobies strike the water head first, penetrating deeply. The ospreys take shallower prey, striking the water with extended, deadly talons. All seem to snag their food with amazing accuracy. Also here were a few nests and mating pairs of yellow-footed gulls, a stately bird found nowhere else but in the Gulf of California, thus an endemic.
Nesting of Baja California’s seabirds will soon begin in earnest. Success will depend a great deal on the availability of food and therefore on water temperatures. Warm water El Niño events can result in a total failure of nesting. Also important to colonial seabirds is the absence of mammalian predators, especially rats and feral cats. Some eggs and young can and will be lost to aerial predators, including gulls and frigatebirds; the colony can withstand this. But few colonies can survive if introduced mammals…including humans…invade the nesting islands.
After a beautiful circumnavigation of Isla Bargo in our kayaks (pictured above), a barbeque awaited us on the sundeck. Bottlenose dolphins joined us for a few minutes, surfing our wake. Later, a bochinche – a feeding frenzy of seabirds, dolphins and predatory fish – developed off the bow. The dart-like entry of boobies and terns into the water was obvious. Less obvious was the food they were after. Schooling sardines, anchovies or herring were the most likely candidates. Even a few humpback whales were found in the vicinity – amazingly rich waters, indeed.
A late afternoon visit to Isla San Marcos found us ashore for short hikes along the beach and into quiet arroyos. As the sun set over the island’s hills, we wondered who could look at Baja California’s “forest” of green this spring and consider this land to be a desert? It seems too lush for that. But we are in the Sonoran Desert. We just happened to arrive here after rains that perhaps won’t fall with such intensity again for many years.
We took a bit of a holiday from the great whales and lesser dolphins this morning. Seabirds, kayaks and a delicious barbeque lunch were on the menu. After cruising north all night, we turned south shortly after watching a green-flash sunrise. Into Bahía Concepción we headed, rocking calmly, a north swell at our stern. Glowing overhead in the morning sun and greeting the early risers on deck were both elegant and royal terns. Immaculate Heermann’s gulls, decorated for the pending breeding season with lipstick-red bills, rose off the water as the Sea Bird bore down on them.
Casual Zodiac cruises around tiny Isla Guapa, a seabird nesting island tucked into this picturesque bay, took us close to brown pelicans and blue-footed and brown boobies. Sitting on nests were ospreys, regally perched atop the highest rocks, their home surrounded by fish-rich waters. All of these species are plunge-feeders. They search for prey from shoreline rocks or while on the wing, then dive suddenly. The pelicans and boobies strike the water head first, penetrating deeply. The ospreys take shallower prey, striking the water with extended, deadly talons. All seem to snag their food with amazing accuracy. Also here were a few nests and mating pairs of yellow-footed gulls, a stately bird found nowhere else but in the Gulf of California, thus an endemic.
Nesting of Baja California’s seabirds will soon begin in earnest. Success will depend a great deal on the availability of food and therefore on water temperatures. Warm water El Niño events can result in a total failure of nesting. Also important to colonial seabirds is the absence of mammalian predators, especially rats and feral cats. Some eggs and young can and will be lost to aerial predators, including gulls and frigatebirds; the colony can withstand this. But few colonies can survive if introduced mammals…including humans…invade the nesting islands.
After a beautiful circumnavigation of Isla Bargo in our kayaks (pictured above), a barbeque awaited us on the sundeck. Bottlenose dolphins joined us for a few minutes, surfing our wake. Later, a bochinche – a feeding frenzy of seabirds, dolphins and predatory fish – developed off the bow. The dart-like entry of boobies and terns into the water was obvious. Less obvious was the food they were after. Schooling sardines, anchovies or herring were the most likely candidates. Even a few humpback whales were found in the vicinity – amazingly rich waters, indeed.
A late afternoon visit to Isla San Marcos found us ashore for short hikes along the beach and into quiet arroyos. As the sun set over the island’s hills, we wondered who could look at Baja California’s “forest” of green this spring and consider this land to be a desert? It seems too lush for that. But we are in the Sonoran Desert. We just happened to arrive here after rains that perhaps won’t fall with such intensity again for many years.
