San Pedro Mártir and San Esteban Islands
The first day of our expedition couldn’t start in a better way, as a group of bottlenose dolphins greeted us as we approached the waters off San Pedro Mártir Island. Numerous individuals delighted us with their high breaches, fast swimming and bow riding, just several feet away from the clicking cameras and joyful exclamations on deck. We knew that this offshore form of the bottlenose dolphin is usually found nearby the largest predator on the planet, and sure enough, the bushy-shaped, tilted blow of a sperm whale was detected. And all this before breakfast! With sperm whales close, National Geographic researcher Greg Marshall and his team went out at sea on a Zodiac to try to deploy his “critter-cam” on the back of a whale. They approached very closely to some of the cachalotes, but the largest of the toothed whales seemed to be a bit too skittish today and no camera was deployed.
As we arrived to San Pedro Mártir Island by mid-morning, we were amazed by the sheer number of sea birds flying around the island: blue-footed and brown boobies, brown pelicans, cormorants, yellow-footed and Hermann’s gulls and even the beautiful red-billed tropic bird (see photo). Ravens were seen patrolling their hunting grounds, looking for an unattended egg or a young chick. Even a peregrine falcon was observed as we cruised around the island on the Zodiacs! Its strategic location (equidistant to the three most important upwelling areas of the gulf and the most isolated island in the Sea of Cortez) makes San Pedro Mártir one of the most important nesting areas for some of those bird species in the hemisphere. And if you add one of the largest California sea lion rookeries in the gulf, and the second-highest density of lizards in the world, you clearly understand why this island and the waters around it were recently declared a Biosphere Reserve.
Late in the afternoon we landed on the foggy shores of a larger island to the north, San Esteban. We brave explorers went hiking along the dry arroyo, looking for the endemic pinto chuckwalla, an iguana endemic to the island. Several individuals were seen basking on the rocks or under the bushes. And as the sun approached the silhouetting peninsula to the west, a lonely mockingbird singed from its perch on top of a cardón and a sea lion called on the distance, I thanked God and marveled for the thousandth time on the beauty of this desert landscape near the sea…
The first day of our expedition couldn’t start in a better way, as a group of bottlenose dolphins greeted us as we approached the waters off San Pedro Mártir Island. Numerous individuals delighted us with their high breaches, fast swimming and bow riding, just several feet away from the clicking cameras and joyful exclamations on deck. We knew that this offshore form of the bottlenose dolphin is usually found nearby the largest predator on the planet, and sure enough, the bushy-shaped, tilted blow of a sperm whale was detected. And all this before breakfast! With sperm whales close, National Geographic researcher Greg Marshall and his team went out at sea on a Zodiac to try to deploy his “critter-cam” on the back of a whale. They approached very closely to some of the cachalotes, but the largest of the toothed whales seemed to be a bit too skittish today and no camera was deployed.
As we arrived to San Pedro Mártir Island by mid-morning, we were amazed by the sheer number of sea birds flying around the island: blue-footed and brown boobies, brown pelicans, cormorants, yellow-footed and Hermann’s gulls and even the beautiful red-billed tropic bird (see photo). Ravens were seen patrolling their hunting grounds, looking for an unattended egg or a young chick. Even a peregrine falcon was observed as we cruised around the island on the Zodiacs! Its strategic location (equidistant to the three most important upwelling areas of the gulf and the most isolated island in the Sea of Cortez) makes San Pedro Mártir one of the most important nesting areas for some of those bird species in the hemisphere. And if you add one of the largest California sea lion rookeries in the gulf, and the second-highest density of lizards in the world, you clearly understand why this island and the waters around it were recently declared a Biosphere Reserve.
Late in the afternoon we landed on the foggy shores of a larger island to the north, San Esteban. We brave explorers went hiking along the dry arroyo, looking for the endemic pinto chuckwalla, an iguana endemic to the island. Several individuals were seen basking on the rocks or under the bushes. And as the sun approached the silhouetting peninsula to the west, a lonely mockingbird singed from its perch on top of a cardón and a sea lion called on the distance, I thanked God and marveled for the thousandth time on the beauty of this desert landscape near the sea…
