“I feel like I’ve landed on the moon!” Such was the first impression of our landing site this morning, from one of our guests. The landscape, or perhaps more properly called the “sandscape” of Isla Magdalena can feel otherworldly. The starkness of the sculpted sands contrasted with periodically punctuating plant clusters were highlighted with wind-blown ripple and wave patterns. Trudging westward across the dunes, we sunk ankle deep into the slightly moist sands that had been “fluffed” by high tide inundations. Continuing into the heart of the dune field, the shifting sands were more densely packed, and the tracks of coyote, jackrabbit, heron and mice were found. A crab sat hunkered in a sandy depression, its eyestalks giving it away. Sand usually doesn’t have eyestalks. Dune plants were festooned with flowers; milkweed with pink tinted clusters, ground cherry and evening primrose with sunny yellow blossoms and locoweed with rich purple petals.
Cruising through the Canal de Soledad, we marveled at the richness and diversity of bird life feeding, nesting and resting in the mangroves. White ibis, marbled godwit, egret and heron, birds with beaks of every length and contortion were out amongst the mudflats probing into the muck or stalking the shallow edges for a meal. Just past the turn in the canal known as Colima Coyote, we spotted our first gray whale cow and calf pair. Puffs of fine mist emanated from where the animals surfaced, as the great behemoths first exhaled and then quickly and discretely inhaled a breath of air.
We gathered to hear Larry, our marine mammologist, speak of the natural history of the gray whale. Rest well tonight, for tomorrow we will be amongst the first of our great whales.
