Guide Report 2
Gray Whales of San Ignacio Lagoon
February 27, 2014
By: Liisa Juuti
We
were honored to have Mark Carwardine, a talented zoologist, conservationist,
wildlife photographer and writer as a guide for our British group in the camp.
He gave excellent presentations on the gray whale, photographing and wildlife
in general. The weather was exceptionally cloudy with almost no wind, except of
the last gorgeous day, the sun shining all day long and ending with a stunning
sunset and a rainbow over the lagoon of San Ignacio.
On
our first whale watching trip we found the "hugger", a beautiful
female gray whale with her calf. She would swim beneath the boat with her tummy
up and "hug" the boat with the flippers in the air. Then she would
start pushing it. Our clients were astonished, screaming out of
excitement as it seemed she would flip the boat over. The baby was patiently
waiting aside while her mother was having fun with us. Another beautiful moment
was to see one baby´s probably first contact with a human. We found the mother
and the newly born calf in the mouth of the lagoon and patiently followed them
from a distance for a good while. The mother was first protecting her baby by
being in between the boat and the baby. Then after some time she seemed to get
more confident and let her baby between her and the boat, then pushing the baby
towards us! Then she came to show example by letting us touch her and kept
pushing the baby towards the boat, until the calf got encouraged enough and
popped out her head for us to pet her. That confidence towards us, humans, from
the mother whales's side just melts my heart!
On our walk to the shore we found
octopi, stingray, chocolate clam, scallop and an interesting looking seaslug.
We learned to differentiate the female octopus from the male, and how to take
the scallop out of the shell.
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