Everywhere we went in Loreto, there were turkey vultures soaring or perched on the tall cacti or clustered on the tops of palm trees. The ground was not littered with carcasses for them to eat, and I was told that they generally make a living at the beaches, where lots of animals wash up (for whatever reason). Indeed, we saw picked-over carcasses of triggerfish and pufferfish, eared grebes, a heron, and some of our group found small manta rays on the strand.<\/p>\n
On one beach walk, we saw a willet with a foot-long worm dangling limply from its bill. Willets are medium-sized shorebirds, very plain until they open their wings. This one walked to and fro with that big worm, sometimes dropping it, only to grab it again. This went on for many minutes. Every so often, the bird swallowed part or all of the worm, but every time, that worm was coughed up onto the pebbles and picked up once more. That made me wonder if the worm was somehow making itself unwelcome in the bird’s digestive tract.<\/p>\n
[Winter in Baja offers change of scenery]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n One day we hired a car and driver (an excellent guide) to go to the west side of the peninsula. The roads that go over the rugged mountains follow the most serpentine routes I’ve ever seen, snaking along steep hillsides and dipping into dry washes. Our goal was a visit to the gray whales that shelter in the lagoons on the Pacific coast. Although these whales are known to approach boats so closely that a person can reach out and pet them, on this day the whales were not in that mood. They were mostly out at the mouth of the lagoon, where they were cavorting and breaching. But we did see one mama with her calf — headed out to join the others.<\/p>\n Along the way, a big stand of mangroves was crowded with perched double-crested cormorants and frigate birds. Some of the cormorants had their two tufty crests erected, so we could readily see how they got their name. Occasional frigate birds soared high above on their angular wings, but we never saw them swoop on another bird that had a fish — frigates are kleptoparasites, making a lot of their living by stealing the prey of successful fisher-birds.<\/p>\n [Alaska taking shape near Yakutat]<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n The west side of the peninsula is much more agricultural than the east side, with cultivated fields and scattered farm animals making a living as best they can on the thorny, spikey, prickly flora. Here the crested caracaras are common. They are scavengers as well as predators: they clean up carrion and I bet they also take newborn baby farm animals (as they do in Chile, I know). They like to nest on high places above the scrubby vegetation and would use the powerline poles, but clever managers have erected special high towers away from the powerlines, and the caracaras like those even better. Ospreys share a liking for those high towers.<\/p>\n Other wildlife seen from the road included iguanas, perched on rocks and rock squirrels. These squirrels are big ground squirrels, with fur of variable shades of black, gray and brown. They are mainly herbivores, sometimes annoying people by chewing up a garden; I saw one with beet juice all over its face. They are reported to be polygamous and females can produce two litters a year. We saw them scuttling in and out of rock piles along the roadside.<\/p>\n A very special sighting was a great egret perched atop a giant cardón cactus. A perfect symbolic juxtaposition of desert and water.<\/p>\n