2007 Life at Campo Cortez
By Caroline Armon
April 03, 2007
Hola! Ahh how I love April and April whales!! Spring is here; warm days, star filled nights, full moon, and reasonable wind - just enough to keep us cool! We have been going out of the lagoon to the outer bay, where the whales have been, especially during low tides. A recent trip is hard to describe, I’ll try… There were at least 18 pairs of mothers with their calves right between our 4 pangas, then blows as far as one could see across the bay. The whales were feeding, and/or teaching the calves how to feed. We could see the mud circles they left behind in the water as they filtered out the sediment. I also could not keep a count of the endless spy hops by the babies! Several calves came to our boat for a massage! Just watching them, motoring with them, seeing the calves roll and play, and full spy hops was a gift I’ll long remember! And what may be the last single male in the lagoon swam by our panga. After that trip we had a great tide walk, a minus low, so able to see the octopus; our little cove is a nursery too! The day was magical, oh what a beautiful and sacred place indeed, where humans and whales can frolic together!!
Ok, here’s a new experience; we were observing a very active calf swishing its tail, leaping into partial breaches. The calf approached the boats and not only did he splash us, he rolled head down so that his tail flukes brushed right by the side of the boat and lightly brushed the 2 ladies sitting there across their faces!!! They were fluked by a whale and lived to tell the tale (tail- ha, ha!). So now whales are touching us - brings this to a whole new level! And I thought the whale riding was something else! We haven’t had much lifting or bumping of the boats this season, compared to the last few, which is ok with me; I found it a bit unnerving. You may notice I wrote he - yes I confirmed it was a boy, as my intuition suspected. I have noticed behavior differences between the boy and girl calves. The boys seem more active; the females tend to be smoother in their movements. Could testosterone already be an influence? This whale was new to us too, so I was laughing while thinking the Magdalena whales are from a tougher neighborhood!
As I look through my log, we have had encounter after encounter with “Miss Ellie”, “Comma”, “Luna”, “Barney”, “Barnita”, and “Bubbles”. These calves play with us, blow bubbles, like their heads and baleen rubbed, roll and dance their way into our hearts. I hope the whales are as delighted as we are! I broke my sunglasses (again), leaning over to kiss “Barnita”, it was worth it!!
Each day a pair is probably heading north, I haven’t seen “Miss Ellie” or “Comma” for a while. We wish them well, even though I know the mortality rate can be 30 to 50%…I will be heading north soon myself.
hasta! Carolina
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