Another new aquila video

 I made this video about things that I saw aboard Aquila on my trip up in the sea of cortez and then crossing back over to Punta Mita.  Its very short, but sweet.

Great Blue Whale video

 

Back in Punta Mita

I'm back in Punta Mita, after my stint with Uncruise on the Safari Voyager in the Sea of Cortez.  My pictures are in reverse order, so I guess I'll go backwards in time...

On the way over I had great Bioluminescence.  Its hard to photograph but you can see it here as the blue color.  The Red is the reflection from my instruments. 

I was using the Watt and Sea on the way over and it works great.  Its out of the water in this photo because it was sunny and the solar panels were doing enough work, but the hydrogenerator just makes power and the autopilot gobbles it up.  

Before I left it was a great moon

And after I worked on the Safari Voyager I went on a trip with a friend from work, and we went all over to find things that we had missed while at work, and to find new things.  We found a nice little hummingbird on a nest

Here is Aquila with Isla Santa Cruz in the background.  There are a lot of the same names for the Channel Islands of California here.

We went to Isla Santa Catalina, and it has a few cool things about it.  The island is very remote and so has a rattlesnake that doesn't have a rattle, but we didn't find one.  But also it has these barrel cactus that are big.  Really big.  8 ft tall sometimes.  

And beautiful minerals and rocks.  lots of cool limestone formations

Anothe shot of the barrel cactus

The Cardon cactus there were blooming.  They usually bloom at night, and bats pollinate them

Another barrel cactus

Yet another.

This is a cardon, but the heart of the cardon.  a funny growth

A view of where we anchored on the south end

A closer view of a cardon top

and more of the cardon flowers

As we arrived, we found a blue whale, and watched it for a while.  Eventually we abandoned ship and took the dinghy to watch the whale, and left Aquila alone and adrift.  

Here's the whale we found

Previous to this we went to Isla Santa Cruz and found a nice big sea cave on the east side.

With dolphins around that island

We also went to a spot on Isla San Jose and found a gigantic old cardon

And a slot canyon.

And a bunch of common dolphin

We also found a few humpback whales to play with.

It was a great trip and I feel great to be back "home" and surfing again.

more baja videos

This is a humpback peck slapping, and it looks kinda cool
 

And a willet wading in shallow water

Night Heron

 

Cool Pelican

 This is a shot from Puerto Escondido, and this pelican got a mouthful of fish.  He then is trying to sift all the little fish out, similar to the way the lunge feeding baleen whales eat.  The pouch retracts elastically and the fish get caught in the bill.  I wonder if pelicans will start to grow little "baleen" hairs on their bills to make this work out easier in the future.  

Blue Whale surfacing

 

Costa's Hummingbird

 

A short video of a gray whale close up

 

Fiddler crabs

 

Week 2 in The gulf of california

This week was really nice, and we went to a lot of the same spots.  Good sunrises and sunsets.

A bit of wind again, with the sand getting nice patterns behind this grass clump

This is a bit of sea foam that flew up over to the grass beside a lagoon

A cool tree at Punta Salinas

And a nice little sandpiper searching

I had a nice skiff tour with some bottlenose dolphins

And an American Oystercatcher

Also some Blue footed Boobies

And another bottlenose dolphin with a nick in the tail.

I had a great skiff tour with a Blue Whale

We went to Loreto

And snorkeled with sea lions again.

 

Neat Pelican Video

I took this in the estuary in San Jose del Cabo.  Its pretty neat seeing the pelican move.
 

First week in Baja

My first week in baja was really nice!  First I started in San Jose del Cabo, and I went to the estuary and found some ducks!  This was a Cinnamon Teal

And a Blue Winged Teal

And a Kestrel

And a Gila Woodpecker

I don't know this flower, but I like it.

A Yellow footed gull

We went to Isla San Jose for the first day

and then Agua Verde for the second, and I got a nice Cardon Cactus, then in the small town there was a turkey

And some nice goats

Cute babies

Here's a shot of the Safari Voyager from up on a hill

Another yellow footed gull

and I'm really happy with this turkey vulture

Some Cholla cactus fruits

A paper Nautilus shell

Blue footed Boobies

A frigate

A nice Cardon, at Danzante Island

An Elephant tree

A Brittle Star

Gray Whale!

A picture of the ship

And some pelicans

And a fig tree in Espiritu Santu

Some old cholla wood in Espiritu Santu island

A view from the top of the hill

and an Agave 

A lizard

Another fig shot

the beach we landed on

the full moon that night

the reflection of the full moon

And this shot, which I am really proud of, is Jupiter, and the moons of Jupiter.  Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.  I've seen them before with binoculars and this was the first time I got a photo of those moons

The next morning I got a nice shot of the moon

And the baja west of Isla San Francisco

A cholla flower bud

A view from up on isla san francisco

A shell

A view from the hill on Isla San Francisco.  It was super windy and fun to be on the hill

Here's the ship from a nice height

And a shrike!

 Whoa, this was a lot of photos, and it was a great week.  I'm excited to get to La Paz and see if Aquila is still sitting pretty, and maybe go over and check on her.  And begin another week.