Boca De La Soledad, Magdalena Bay
The vast and poetry-inspiring Magdalena Bay showed its quietness and beauty this morning as the sun came up over the Hiray plains, on the peninsula side. With this natural frame we launched our Zodiac boats for a day of whale watching and hiking. Those that walked on the dunes of Magdalena Island, observed jackrabbits and coyotes, and encountered an infinite number of tracks of diverse creatures like hermit crabs, white-footed mice, tenebrionid beetles, lizards and possibly a flock of whimbrels. The tracks went in all directions, like a small and messy net of highways on the soft sand. Around the mangrove patches, the hikers also watched kingfishers, scrub jays, shrikes, mangrove warblers and great blue herons, among other interesting birds. Our naturalists explained the extreme importance of the mangroves as nurseries for a huge number of marine creatures. Food, desirable salinity and temperature, protection and other conditions vital for part of their life cycles, are found there by swimming crabs, shrimps, clams of all types, and a great variety of fish species. Many shore birds take advantage of this habitat and have their dinners there.
The Zodiac boats went up to the northernmost entrance of the bay, called Boca de la Soledad (The Mouth of the Solitude), for whale watching. Most of us experienced close encounters with these gentle giants – the gray whales. Pairs of cows and calves were there and displayed a number of behaviors: rolling over the moms’ backs, calves breaching and nursing. Single adults were also observed in their frenzy, wandering for mates, and many eventually showed their flukes, or spy hopped. Friendly behavior was detected by some of our guests, who stretched arms and hands and reached the animals' skins for a few seconds. In moments, the Zodiacs were surrounded by 8 or 9 whales, making their powerful exhalations sound like aquatic steam-locomotives. The day was closed with a delicious grouper and lobster aboard the Sea Bird, and delightful Mexican songs of love and fun performed by Los Coyotes de Magdalena, a group of local musicians.
The vast and poetry-inspiring Magdalena Bay showed its quietness and beauty this morning as the sun came up over the Hiray plains, on the peninsula side. With this natural frame we launched our Zodiac boats for a day of whale watching and hiking. Those that walked on the dunes of Magdalena Island, observed jackrabbits and coyotes, and encountered an infinite number of tracks of diverse creatures like hermit crabs, white-footed mice, tenebrionid beetles, lizards and possibly a flock of whimbrels. The tracks went in all directions, like a small and messy net of highways on the soft sand. Around the mangrove patches, the hikers also watched kingfishers, scrub jays, shrikes, mangrove warblers and great blue herons, among other interesting birds. Our naturalists explained the extreme importance of the mangroves as nurseries for a huge number of marine creatures. Food, desirable salinity and temperature, protection and other conditions vital for part of their life cycles, are found there by swimming crabs, shrimps, clams of all types, and a great variety of fish species. Many shore birds take advantage of this habitat and have their dinners there.
The Zodiac boats went up to the northernmost entrance of the bay, called Boca de la Soledad (The Mouth of the Solitude), for whale watching. Most of us experienced close encounters with these gentle giants – the gray whales. Pairs of cows and calves were there and displayed a number of behaviors: rolling over the moms’ backs, calves breaching and nursing. Single adults were also observed in their frenzy, wandering for mates, and many eventually showed their flukes, or spy hopped. Friendly behavior was detected by some of our guests, who stretched arms and hands and reached the animals' skins for a few seconds. In moments, the Zodiacs were surrounded by 8 or 9 whales, making their powerful exhalations sound like aquatic steam-locomotives. The day was closed with a delicious grouper and lobster aboard the Sea Bird, and delightful Mexican songs of love and fun performed by Los Coyotes de Magdalena, a group of local musicians.
