Isla Rasa and The Midriff Islands
It’s just before dawn as the National Geographic Sea Bird anchors off Isla Rasa. Listen, you can hear them. Elegant terns, royal terns, and Heermann’s gulls – nearly a half-million birds calling to each other. They’ve all come to Isla Rasa with one thing on their mind – it’s the breeding season. Love is in the air, and love is everywhere. From the Zodiacs at sunrise the sound is deafening. And the visuals are stunning. Silhouettes of streaking birds against the glowing sky thrills photographers.
After breakfast we go ashore for a closer look and are blown away, once again. Birds, birds, birds. Isla Rasa is one of the conservation success stories in the Sea of Cortez, having been the site of guano mining and egg collection that disturbed this small island and introduced rats. But thanks to the dedication of Enriqueta Velarde and her graduate students over the past 30 years, the rats are gone and the birds are thriving.
As great as the morning was, the afternoon was even better. Whales, whale, whales. After brief encounters with a feeding frenzy of dolphins, and the rare and elusive Risso’s dolphins, we hit the jackpot with sperm whales. Not one, not two, but countless individuals spread out across the horizon. Captain Coughlin (aka, “Captain Composition”) positions the ship perfectly for a fluking sperm whale in the sunset, not once, but twice.
Yet another perfect ending to yet another perfect day on this Photo Expedition exploring Baja California and the Sea of Cortez.
