We began the day with a pre-breakfast zodiac ride at Isla Los Islotes, an archipelago of small rocky outcrops that are a popular “haul out” spot for California sea lions. It was fun to watch the behaviors as the sea lions swam around us, or slept in the sun, or played “roll someone off the rock so I can sleep”. Young ones darted around the zodiacs and practiced their dolphin imitations, porpoising and leaping out of the water.
Later in the morning we cruised north to look for whales. We saw very few, some blows near the horizon, but we did have good sightings of mobula rays jumping out of the water and flipping themselves over.
After lunch we snorkeled at Bahia Bonanza. The water was clear and the warmest of the whole trip. After a quick shower we returned to walk through the desert behind the dunes. We were searching (unsuccessfully) for the endemic black antelope jack-rabbit.
At dinner, we had an early celebration of Kevin’s birthday complete with bird-themed decorations and chocolate desserts. The hotel manager also treated us with a nice bottle of Champagne to add to the celebration.
And just for completeness, on March 16 we disembarked south of Loreto and spent several hours at the local golf course birding with friends. As others had told us, the golf course had a lot of hummingbirds, always a joy. We start the journey home on the 17th.
Pictured: Mobula ray upside down, California sea lions leaping and sleeping, Xantus’s hummingbird, vermillion flycatcher, Atlantic needlefish, guinea fowl puffer, Kevin in the ship’s birthday sombrero.
The Steve Hartman segment here is about a boy who can imitate every bird call there is:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Jl7WWyxfk&t=1169s