Creatures great and small were the theme for today. Sunrise found us surrounded by gray whales at the entrance to Magdalena Bay. Blow after blow, gray whales were spotted rising to the surface to exhale and inhale. Four whales milled about very close together and we suspected we might be watching a prelude to mating. After breakfast we went ashore on Isla Magdalena. Since the island was only a half-mile wide at this point we could easily cross from the bay side to the Pacific side of the island. During our short hike across Sahara-like sand dunes we examined tracks revealing the inhabitants of the dunes.
Although we never saw them, crisscrossing tracks told us coyotes, jack rabbits, birds, raccoons, and fox made the dunes their home. On the Pacific side of the island we were treated to the best sand dollar beach many of us had ever seen. Hundreds of perfect, unbroken sand dollars were lying in the fine white sand. Our naturalists pointed out miniature green and black marine worms wriggling in the shallow water near shore and we watched clams siphoning sand and water to extract food. At the foothills of the dunes a tiny lizard was spotted sunning itself in the sun. As it remained motionless it relied on its camouflaged color to protect it and we were able to get quite close for photographs. Between these moments of discovery we found silence and solitude on this remote Pacific beach.
