February 19, 2010
Hola! It is definitely an El Nino year here at Laguna San Ignacio; the water temperature is about 65 degrees, the air temperature in the high 70’s for the last 5 days. That’s about 10 degrees warmer than average. I usually don’t go out on the boats in shorts, (always bringing my rain pants), until mid March! The wind has been very light too, until today- a bit more and cooler temperatures. The coyotes were yelping 2 nights ago, a change of weather?
On February 4, the census showed 94 single whales and 15 pairs of moms with calves, for a total of 124 whales. The census from February 17 shows 186 singles with only 8 pair of mom-calves, for a total of 202 whales in the lagoon. The singles about doubled, but where did those 7 pairs of mom-calves go?, it seems too early for them to have headed out. I don’t recall those numbers decreasing ever before. Our pairs should be going up for another week or so. Going over past censuses to 2002, those are some of the lowest mom-calf numbers we’ve seen along with the highest number of singles counted, for any part of the season. Is there a correlation there? Do the low mom-calf numbers have anything to do with the warmer water? I have seen a couple of ‘skinny’ whales. Stay tuned!
We definitely see the difference with adult whales at every turn, swimming the deeper channels of the lagoon, as if strolling the promenade, with mating groups forming. We are only seeing a few of those mom-calf pairs. However, we’ve enjoyed very active whales with spy hopping, breaches, and showing tail flukes. One juvenile was doing ‘headstands’ near our boat, repeatedly, gently, swishing the water with its tail!
On our way back, going near the beach, we could not believe our eyes as we watched a coyote run down and attack a sea lion on the beach. The battle was still going as we left, and the sea lion seemed to be holding its own, reminding us most life is prey and predator.
Quite an unusual and interesting season already!
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OnBoard Tours Whales 
please put e on your email list for future posts, thank you, caryn
By: bcaryn on February 23, 2010
at 3:30 PM
Thanks Caryn! You should be able to subscribe, add your email for postings, right from the postings page, in the lower right corner.
By: onboardtourswhales on March 4, 2010
at 9:39 PM
I wish I was going this year. It’s been 2 years. Sigh…. To have my butt warm again would be wonderful. Of course, seeing the whales, well that’s icing on the cake.
By: Cathy Scott on February 23, 2010
at 7:51 PM