As we navigated north this morning, gusts of wind blew the tops off of the rolling waves and turned the spray into ephemeral rainbows. We found an anchorage at a lovely beach known as Encantada. The morning was spent attending to a variety of obligatory drills and briefings, but we still found time for the fun of a short snorkel opportunity.
The afternoon was filled with a variety of walks up a winding, tree-lined arroyo. Skipping from patch to patch of shade, we were introduced to the denizens of the Sonoran desert. Numerous leguminous trees, thorn blanketed cacti, and fleetingly flowering shrubs that not only survive, but thrive in the challenges presented by an arid, sun-drenched environment.
Serenades by verdins in the trees, staccato chatter of gila and ladder-backed woodpeckers, and asthmatic wheezing sounds from gnatcatchers caught our auditory attentions. As we returned beach ward, the zippy flight and chitchat of a hummingbird turned heads upward. The reward was three-fold; a stunning view of an endemic Xantus’s hummingbird, her spider webbed nest perched up in the branches of the Palo Blanco tree, and the crowning highlight, the female Xantus’s coming to the nest and feeding in sword-swallowing fashion a single chick.
Once we were back aboard National Geographic Sea Bird, we cleaned up and gathered in the lounge to share our individual highlights of the day. From blue-bellied brush lizards, photographically fun dead fish, ball nests of verdin stuffed into the branches of a Palo Verde tree to our shared experience of a full moon rising over the darkened silhouette of Isla San Jose. It was bedtime for Bonzo and we followed suit, readying ourselves for tomorrow’s adventures.
