2007 Life at Campo Cortez
By Caroline Armon
February 23, 2007
Hola Everyone! The wind calmed down from last week and we have had nice sunny days, star filled nights. We are seeing a lot of adult whales in the lagoon, and they are busy making more gray whales! The census was not taken last week, because of the high winds, so hoping for a new count any day now. We actually saw a dual showing of both males in a mating group! There is a juvenile female that really seems to enjoy interacting with people and playing with the boats. Thinking about the juvenile whales in the lagoon, they are not mating, giving birth, or eating much, so I wonder that they are here to continue to learn about being a gray whale and socializing with each other and us…particularly if they enjoyed interacting with humans as calves. We have had several encounters with her. On one trip, we
named her “Princess Ellie” in honor of our guest, Ellie, who turned 77 years old that day. Our first ever family from Taiwan spent an enjoyable 3 days at Campo Cortez. The lagoon and whales are getting visitors from all around the world. We are starting to see the calves practicing their breaching! Yesterday afternoon, we watched a bottlenose dolphin leap out of the water countless times. Then we realized there was a whale close by and younger dolphins were with the whale. I think it was a juvenile whale, floating on it’s back and rolling, as if it was watching and playing with the dolphins! I have never seen a dolphin leap so much out of the water! A spectacular day!! Hope all is well where you are!
Caroline
Logs & Diaries -- Guest Comments -- Field Reports -- Gray Whale Census
