Bahia Magdalena
This morning we went ashore at Isla Magdalena for our first outing in Baja California Sur. As the sun rose high into the sky the low lying fog burned off. We passed large middens of shells and succulent vegetation that was attempting to hold back the eastward-advancing dunes.
Once on the Pacific side we looked for beach treasures and found the remains of the creatures that make the waters here so rich and intriguing: sand dollar tests, the skull of a common dolphin, a sea turtle carapace, and plenty of pelican bones. Comparing the weight of dolphin and bird bones, we could instantly feel a difference.
In the afternoon we boarded our fleet of Zodiacs and headed in to a maze of vegetation and channels made up by mangroves. Herons and egrets lined the mudflats, waiting patiently for crabs or fish that might mistake their legs for prop roots…typically a safe haven for young maturing sea animals. Plunge-diving pelicans fished alongside great lines of cormorants fishing for sardines. Heermann’s gulls mobbed the pelicans, their cat-like calls carrying across the water as the pelicans made their way up from dives, attempting to swallow fish before the gulls came in for the steal.
This particular stand of mangroves today was a haven for night herons—both black-crowned and yellow-crowned. We watched them hunch on branches, their slaty backs blending into the shadows.
This morning we went ashore at Isla Magdalena for our first outing in Baja California Sur. As the sun rose high into the sky the low lying fog burned off. We passed large middens of shells and succulent vegetation that was attempting to hold back the eastward-advancing dunes.
Once on the Pacific side we looked for beach treasures and found the remains of the creatures that make the waters here so rich and intriguing: sand dollar tests, the skull of a common dolphin, a sea turtle carapace, and plenty of pelican bones. Comparing the weight of dolphin and bird bones, we could instantly feel a difference.
In the afternoon we boarded our fleet of Zodiacs and headed in to a maze of vegetation and channels made up by mangroves. Herons and egrets lined the mudflats, waiting patiently for crabs or fish that might mistake their legs for prop roots…typically a safe haven for young maturing sea animals. Plunge-diving pelicans fished alongside great lines of cormorants fishing for sardines. Heermann’s gulls mobbed the pelicans, their cat-like calls carrying across the water as the pelicans made their way up from dives, attempting to swallow fish before the gulls came in for the steal.
This particular stand of mangroves today was a haven for night herons—both black-crowned and yellow-crowned. We watched them hunch on branches, their slaty backs blending into the shadows.
