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As we got out beyond Horse's Head Island, we saw a huge flock of circling birds. Several actually. To me it looked kind of like a bird cyclone, there were so many birds circling overhead. |
We left on the boats about 8:15 a.m. instead of 7:15. It sure was a big difference! Everyone was all ready to go by a little after 7 and then milled around for an hour waiting to leave. We'd all gotten so used to getting up, eating and getting out of there. The reason we left later was because Greg went and got the 5 gallon gas containers refilled. Most of the time each of the three boats has at least 3 containers for the day.
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As we got out beyond Horse's Head Island, we saw a huge flock of circling birds. Several actually. To me it looked kind of like a bird cyclone, there were so many birds circling overhead. |
The first bird cyclone was nearly all pelicans and the second was nearly all boobies. Then the birds began to mix. We started noting the birds we saw, and I think we saw almost every bird we'd been studying. Here's my list: yellow-footed gulls, Heerman's gulls, brown pelicans, brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, least storm petrel, black storm petrel, sooty sheerwater, black-vented sheerwater, magnificent friggates, Brandt's cormorants, double-crested cormorants. Is my list incomplete or incorrect? Could be, but these are the one's I either saw, or had someone tell me we were seeing. Birds everywhere, all around us.
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In the water, we saw lots of the brown common dolphins churning up the water and then we had a couple of Bryde's whales go by. Too cool ! We followed the feeding dolphins a ways, and then turned off from their course to follow the whales which would tease us by coming up two or three times quickly and then would dive in one direction (which we would follow in our boat) only to find the whale would come up 15 or 20 minutes later in a totally different location from where we thought they'd be. |
In my notebook, the notes on this page end with, "While following the Bryde's whale we saw". I must have had to do something and forgot to come back and finish that day. I believe I was going to say that we saw a fin whale also.
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After whale chasing for a while, we went to Isla Smith to put to shore
in a lagoon area. Just before going into the lagoon, we saw Gregg and
Susan in one of the other boats. They'd found a whale. Just look at how
close they got to it! I must admit to slight feelings of jealousy.
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As we boated into the lagoon, we could see lots of rays sitting on the bottom, looking like large rocks that would gently float away from our boat. The beach area was very gravely and was kind of tough to walk in with bare or flippered feet. But once in the water, wheeeee! There was a narrow channel that was so shallow, because the tide was out, that we couldn't float over the bottom and had to either flop through on our bellies, kind of like sea lions moving on land, or get up and wade through. I think most of us chose to flop through because it was more fun. When I stopped to hold still floating above the gravel, I saw little fish that looked like the sandy bottom who would get curious about me and dart toward me and then backward checking out my fingers and hands. It was interesting, because I could see their little fishy eyes checking me out. Wonder what they were thinking about me? :-)
When the tide started coming back in, the area where we'd originally had to flop around to get over, was difficult to cross because the water was coming through this small channel so quickly that no one could swim or walk up it. We all ended up getting out of the water below that area and walking over the gravel to our shoes. A lot of us were done swimming, but when the water started going through more quickly, some people got back in the water and rode the chute. It looked like fun, but I didn't try it because I was feeling a little cold and tired, and maybe a little chicken, too, if you want the whole truth. |
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Coming back into the station at the end of the day, just inside the light house area, we saw a whale shark. Guy said it was a young one because it was only as long as our boat, about 15 feet. Good grief! What do the big ones look like? !! The water was choppy and that made it hard to see the shark. It would come up to the surface just barely enough for us to see the tip of its tail fin. This photo is just about how much we saw it, a speckled shadow in the water. A LARGE, speckled shadow! |
