Our morning—the 2nd full day of summer after the solstice took place on 20 June— began with good looks at herons, egrets, gulls, cormorants, pelicans and a pair of black oystercatchers in Quivira Basin. Our flippered friends were a bit quiet, the sea lions were resting with one in the water jugging—holding long flippers out of the water for thermoregulation—and about 20 weighing down the end of the floating dock and mooring ball. We were all excited as we went through the bouncy channel entrance to the Pacific Ocean. After a lengthy search, we found about 350 Long beaked common dolphins about 12-miles offshore, maybe 4.5 miles off of the LaJolla Coast. We had cow/calf mother/baby pairs and some boisterous males leaping out of the water with high, arching porpoises. These social animals were foraging and chasing small fish. Some of us saw some of the first flying fish of the year leap and glide over the water for 50 yards of more. Toward the end of our trip, folks on the starboard side found a minke whale that was very secretive, as it only surfaced two times.
On our afternoon trip, we had sunny skies and a fresh breeze with small white caps. After a bit of searching, we found a very active pod of Short beaked common dolphins. Soon thereafter, we had a pod of Long-beaked commion dolphins. On our way back, we saw the much larger and seemingly slower Offshore bottlenose dolphins. Nice to see such interesting, graceful, majestic mammals. There are 35 dolphin species in the world, so we got about 8% of the diversity in one trip, very impressive.
We had an amazing sunset trip! We cruised out to the NW and enjoyed the sunshine lighting up the coastline! We could pretty great visibility allowing us to see up to Del Mar! Beyond the drop-off we sighted some splashes! We had sighted a fun pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphin that were traveling south! They were very playful and very interested in our boat! Many were surfing and riding the bow! We left them behind and continued to the west and spotted some birds diving in the water! We began our investigation and once we got closer we noticed lots of splashes! We encountered a much larger pod of Long-beaked Common dolphins! We estimate about 600 in this very energetic pod! There were mini feeding frenzies where a few dolphins would stop their play to corral fish. We sighted plenty of calves zooming all around the boat! They cruised in toward the coast which allowed us more time with this fantastic pod! The sunset was gorgeous!
Hope to sea you on the next one!
Naturalists,
Greg and Vanessa
