Los Islotes
The sun rose with a pale hue of green flashing for just a moment as the Sea Lion moved south just past Los Islotes off the northern end of Isla Espiritu Santo. At some distance off the starboard side of the ship the Baja peninsula started reflecting soft colors of pink, orange and many shades of brown, all included in the different layers of rock that make up the Baja peninsula.
The seas were building. Earlier this morning, we watched as small waves began to show signs of white caps. Because of the increasing waves, our Expedition leader decided to rearrange our last day's itinerary and take the Sea Lion into the small rock outcropping that had been so beautifully backlit during our sunrise! We would be spending our morning doing Zodiac tours and then snorkeling at Los Islotes. In the afternoon we would visit Bahia Bonanza and enjoy a late afternoon hike in the southern Sonoran desert, exploring the diverse plant communities.
Once our vessel had turned around, we began a slow approach to Los Islotes, the most southern of the California sea lion rookeries in the Gulf of California. This tiny piece of welded volcanic ash is home to many inhabitants…….descending in size from the California sea lions to scurrying black turnstones, great blue herons, yellow-footed gulls, blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, turkey vultures, peregrine falcons, an occasional osprey, and possibly most important a plethora of small sessile and also moving small critters! Probably, one of the most notable of these rock dwellers is the Sally Light foot crab. They run with tremendous agility from rock crevice to rock crevice, sometimes jumping, for them huge distances, in their constant search for food. They are also using their speed and dexterity to hide from predators who on occasion can be just above their heads, but on this auspicious day we observed two of these gorgeously decorated crabs deciding it was time to box for territory. Moving on bright red legs two Sally Light foot crabs carried their flaming blue, yellow and mottled red bodies back and forth across a flat rock dwelling with their enormous fore claws in an obvious argument over a very particular piece of rock close to the waters edge. Several other crabs in similar garb stood aside or moved quickly out of the way as these two adversaries duked it out! Was one a female? Was the other a male and this some sort of courtship dance? Was one Sally Light foot crab just plain crabby and in need of expression of his or her opinion? Was one crevice more desirable than another, and thus in need of defensive posturing? Were the spectator crabs who watched this whole aggressive episode, just trying to stay a safe distance from the main arena of attack, or there for the show?
Slowly, the larger and more yellow of the crabs would raise his pincers and shadow box infront of the more reddish and smaller of the two crabs. This tiny crab would raise his pincers, start to box and then withdraw ever so slowly…..towards the safety of a small indentation in the rock face. As the crabs faced off extremely close to each other, we could see their faceted eyes or omatidia moving independently on stocks watching the many images of each other! Unbeknownst to this retreating Sally Light foot, yet another member, a distant relative crouched in that space….pincers at the ready. Very quickly our defendant side stepped another confrontation, as is the tradition with crabs and moved rapidly from left to right along an open area of rock.
We had come to view the much larger California sea lions, and yes, they had given us an amazing quotient of cuteness. The larger males were awesomely fierce mostly by virtue of size, one male looked to be approximately five hundred pounds in weight! A few pups were nursing, while their moms lay comfortably on the rocks. Pups called from the water, looking for their moms. Mothers responded with enormous volume! Male sea lions barked at each other, and also postured for territory in preparation for the upcoming mating season!
Though, in the end and in all fairness to the many observations made on this very small and rugged island, it was the Sally Light foot crab shadow boxing, dodging waves, and side-stepping rock ledges and cousins who gave a group of us a big smile and a long pause of reflection; it had been the little ones who made us smile and laugh!!!
The sun rose with a pale hue of green flashing for just a moment as the Sea Lion moved south just past Los Islotes off the northern end of Isla Espiritu Santo. At some distance off the starboard side of the ship the Baja peninsula started reflecting soft colors of pink, orange and many shades of brown, all included in the different layers of rock that make up the Baja peninsula.
The seas were building. Earlier this morning, we watched as small waves began to show signs of white caps. Because of the increasing waves, our Expedition leader decided to rearrange our last day's itinerary and take the Sea Lion into the small rock outcropping that had been so beautifully backlit during our sunrise! We would be spending our morning doing Zodiac tours and then snorkeling at Los Islotes. In the afternoon we would visit Bahia Bonanza and enjoy a late afternoon hike in the southern Sonoran desert, exploring the diverse plant communities.
Once our vessel had turned around, we began a slow approach to Los Islotes, the most southern of the California sea lion rookeries in the Gulf of California. This tiny piece of welded volcanic ash is home to many inhabitants…….descending in size from the California sea lions to scurrying black turnstones, great blue herons, yellow-footed gulls, blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, turkey vultures, peregrine falcons, an occasional osprey, and possibly most important a plethora of small sessile and also moving small critters! Probably, one of the most notable of these rock dwellers is the Sally Light foot crab. They run with tremendous agility from rock crevice to rock crevice, sometimes jumping, for them huge distances, in their constant search for food. They are also using their speed and dexterity to hide from predators who on occasion can be just above their heads, but on this auspicious day we observed two of these gorgeously decorated crabs deciding it was time to box for territory. Moving on bright red legs two Sally Light foot crabs carried their flaming blue, yellow and mottled red bodies back and forth across a flat rock dwelling with their enormous fore claws in an obvious argument over a very particular piece of rock close to the waters edge. Several other crabs in similar garb stood aside or moved quickly out of the way as these two adversaries duked it out! Was one a female? Was the other a male and this some sort of courtship dance? Was one Sally Light foot crab just plain crabby and in need of expression of his or her opinion? Was one crevice more desirable than another, and thus in need of defensive posturing? Were the spectator crabs who watched this whole aggressive episode, just trying to stay a safe distance from the main arena of attack, or there for the show?
Slowly, the larger and more yellow of the crabs would raise his pincers and shadow box infront of the more reddish and smaller of the two crabs. This tiny crab would raise his pincers, start to box and then withdraw ever so slowly…..towards the safety of a small indentation in the rock face. As the crabs faced off extremely close to each other, we could see their faceted eyes or omatidia moving independently on stocks watching the many images of each other! Unbeknownst to this retreating Sally Light foot, yet another member, a distant relative crouched in that space….pincers at the ready. Very quickly our defendant side stepped another confrontation, as is the tradition with crabs and moved rapidly from left to right along an open area of rock.
We had come to view the much larger California sea lions, and yes, they had given us an amazing quotient of cuteness. The larger males were awesomely fierce mostly by virtue of size, one male looked to be approximately five hundred pounds in weight! A few pups were nursing, while their moms lay comfortably on the rocks. Pups called from the water, looking for their moms. Mothers responded with enormous volume! Male sea lions barked at each other, and also postured for territory in preparation for the upcoming mating season!
Though, in the end and in all fairness to the many observations made on this very small and rugged island, it was the Sally Light foot crab shadow boxing, dodging waves, and side-stepping rock ledges and cousins who gave a group of us a big smile and a long pause of reflection; it had been the little ones who made us smile and laugh!!!
