2007 Life at Campo Cortez
By Caroline Armon
February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! Dia de Amor – Day of Love! And Feliz Cumpleanos, Happy Birthday to Valentin, part of our Campo Cortez staff and family. The season is in full swing, and most of our crew is back together, working like the well oiled machine that we are! John from La Paz is a welcome addition to our staff this year. He is multi talented, helping with the carpentry, and training as a guide. He has lots of experience having worked with NOAA for several years and is a sailor and a diver. We also have a new camp cat; Junior belongs to our cook Elsa. He looks like a well fed Morris the cat, quite the character. Roberto, Pricila and their daughter Catarine acquired a pug dog named Apolo, very cute – he wears a doggy sweater when it’s cold. We have 14 cabanas now, 4 electric flush toilets, so we are living comfortably – the lap of luxury camping!
The latest census of whales shows there are 25 pairs of mothers with calves = 50, plus 69 single whales, for a total of 119, counted on February 8, 2007. My sense is that there are even more whales in the lagoon at this time, which is typical, as the numbers will continue to go up until our count usually peaks between the first part and middle of March.
The weather has been sunny and warm during the day, cooler at night, a desert habitat. This morning, we had a wonder-filled, calm trip out on the lagoon. This afternoon we have been grounded for the first time, no afternoon whale watch, due to west winds of more than 20 miles per hour combined with a very low tide. That means conditions out on the lagoon are bumpy and wet – no fun! And the whales usually don’t interact with us then, they are busy swimming and breathing. I am glad we don’t get grounded very often! So the guests are taking siestas and nature walks. We have walked to the bone yard and most of our collection appears to have survived the floods of the autumn. Many species of migratory birds are enjoying the lagoon. The tide was right – a minus 1.0’ low, so we just got back from seeing all the amazing creatures that live in the different tidal zones. We were able to touch 2 common pacific octopuses – always a popular find!
The guests, the whale observations and interactions have been great!! I think we have seen and experienced every whale behavior; spyhopping, breaching, fluking, and logging – resting whales. Many mating groups and ironic that my first “pink floyd” sighting of the season was this morning! (Actually I saw two “pink floyds”). We have had interactions with adult, juvenile, and baby whales! Overall the whales look robust, like they fed well last year. They are gently bumping, nudging, and lifting the boats again this year, so we are still doing a bit of “whale riding”!
I am going to try to attach some pictures. I am hoping Johnny will be able to set up a link from Baja Ecotours website, where guests can access and download, and exchange pictures.
I have been working on getting everything organized and set up in the palapa, as well as guiding our whale watch trips and other activities, so the 2 weeks since I left home have just flown by! I do think of all of you at different moments in the day, sunrises and sunsets…
Caroline
Logs & Diaries -- Guest Comments -- Field Reports -- Gray Whale Census
