At The Backroads

San Diego Bay from Hornblower Cruise, Thursday, Jan 8 2009

Last Thursday was my birthday, and since I am still on vacation, I told myself I will give myself a birthday treat by hopping in a boat to the middle of the sea and celebrate birthday with the wildlife in the ocean . I bought my whale watching ticket through Goldstar, which is only a total of $19.50 compared to $30.00 regular price. However, when Thursday came, it was overcast! I was thinking of not going anymore since I won’t be able to take good pictures because of poor visibility. But then, as I already had promised myself to enjoy that day no matter what and that was how I wanted to enjoy the day, I jumped in the whale watching cruise still. And here was my birthday party :))

My Birthday Guests ( hahahaha, I’d like to think that way, poor me )

Greeter Number 1

Greeter Number 2

Greeter Number 3 and 4

Greeter Number 5 and 6

Actually, there were still a lot of other greeters, however, the pictures did not come out good at all with all the haze from the marine layer. Sometimes, we got lucky to be on a fogless spot, maybe like this one where we can see clearly the Hotel del Coronado

Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado Bridge

But a lot of the times, it was like this

Abandoned Deck, @ 3 pm in the afternoon

It is not that there were not other people on the boat, there were a lot! At first, the tour started with almost everyone outside, having a merry time, then, with the very chilly breeze blowing, despite having warm jackets, after an hour, slowly the people were moving inside seeking the comfort of an indoor seating! But it was fun, despite the gloomy weather. I had fun watching the dolphins watch the whales. it is easier to look for the whales since usually the dolphins would come circling around them.

Dolphin and Whale

Though the picture may look like it is the whale following the dolphin, but actually, the dolphins were kind of moving around the whale and when I caught this picture, the dolphin was in front of the whale. Dolphins are very curious and intelligent marine mammals, they love to observe what is going around the whale as much as men study the behavior of the whales too. In fact, some dolphins and sea lions are trained by the US Navy for military intelligence. If we have police dogs on land, we have the the navy sea lions and dolphins in water. We also saw the military carrier which shoot down the defective spy satellite last year to prevent it from hitting the populated part of the Earth.

Military Carrier that Shoot Down the Defective Spy Satellite

Whale watching is not only fun but also educational, I think it’s not only the kids who light up with excitement when they see jumping whales and dolphins, but adults too. How many whales do you think are in this picture? Is this only one whale or two?

Gray whales are most frequently seen off San Diego from December to March as they trek from the frigid arctic waters to the warm water lagoons of Baja, California, where females give birth to their calves. Each year, about 26,000 whales would make the 10,000 mile journey from Arctic to Baja and back.

Gray Whale’s Tail

From the gray whale, bye for now

Gray Whale’s Tail

Until the next post, hope you enjoyed this gloomy whale watching trip. Though a gloomy day, but I had a happy birthday

Gulls Flock at the Rocky Intertidal Zone at Low Tide

The moment we stepped on the shores of San Onofre State Beach yesterday to enjoy the sunset, it was also just like the other day, a beautiful low tide. Again, there are so many exciting things at low tide. The rocky intertidal zone is exposed, allowing the birds to see clearly what they want to feed on, thus a lot of birds usually flock on the shore at low tide. I always love to see them chase the waves, or chase the small sea creatures carried by the wave? But since it was close to sunset, the gulls mostly are just resting on shore.

Gulls on Shore @ Low Tide

San Onofre State Beach is at the very Northern part of San Diego County, thus it is a very quiet beach being far from bigger cities. It is several miles North of Oceanside and maybe just a mile of South of San Clemente border. Most of the beach goers here are mostly surfers, especially at this time of the year where the water is only in the 50s. But I think the surfers like the peacefulness of this beach so they can have this mostly for themselves, their paradise.

Surfers Cleaning Up their Boards

San Onofre State Beach offers a world renowned and historical surf break. This is probably a  surfer’s paradise 360 days of the year. The San Mateo Creek flows just east of the campground outward towards the ocean creating key riparian and wetland habitats which host some rare and even endangered species. There is a 1.5 mile nature trail from the beach to the campground on top of the bluffs which is i.5 mile inland.

Parade of Surfers

Seeing a lot of gulls on shore made me excited for sunset pictures. I had my own imagination, a big congregation of gulls resting on the sand being lit by the setting sun. But little did I know that at sunset, most surfers get out of the water. And each time they get out of the water, this is what happens

1. As the surfer closes his distance to the birds, one by one, the birds started to fly.

2. When the surfer finally crosses the birds congregation, birds would fly almost at the same time

3. Passing some surfers on the water

4. Almost towards the sun

5. And then, the birds would congregate again in another part of the beach, that would make me follow where they are, hoping they would still be there when the sun is much lower in the horizon already.

6. Unfortunately, when I get to them,

they would fly in the opposite direction again :))

And I would walk again where they would land,

it was definitely fun! It was such a lovely and another special day yesterday, kind of chasing or following the birds where they would go.

I did not get my first imagined picture, but then, the birds and the surfers had their own beautiful plan as well