Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Santa Cruz Island”
Gray whales and a lot of dolphins Not far out of Santa Barbara Harbor the Condor Express played with a group of at least 1,500 common dolphins. As usual, these friendly cetaceans rode the bow, surfed the wake, and generally dazzled and delighted everyone on board. Next we ran across the to world famous Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island, …
Mirror Glass, Many Mammal Species and a pair of Bald Eagles Today A tiny bit of haze but extremely glassy conditions again today on the Santa Barbara Channel as the Condor Express motored out for another adventure packed trip full of unexpected surprises. The first surprise of the day was a big pod of 15 or more elusive Dall’s …
3 Gray Whales and Excellent Cetacean Diversity Again the calm seas and excellent weather made whale finding and whale watching a dream come true. Today the Condor Express located and watched three individual gray whales: one mid-Channel, one on the west end of Santa Cruz Island, and the third a bit east of the famous Painted Cave. In addition to …
Calm seas result in gray whales mating. The trip across the Santa Barbara Channel was smooth as silk today and we were lucky today to see gray whale mating. A few seabirds such as phalaropes and shearwaters were observed mostly resting on the surface. Later a northern fulmar sitting on the glassy surface would approach the Condor Express as we …
South of the Harbor our humpback whale mother and calf re-appeared today and the Condor Express got great looks. Again the conditions were magnificent…a light, warm breeze with calm seas. After spending time with the two whales, we sailed out to Santa Cruz Island and the famous Painted Cave. The trip out and back was marked by repeated interactions with …
Though we plied the Santa Barbara Channel from the mid Channel buoy eastward to Scorpion and back again, we “only” observed one humpback whale today. I put “only” in quotes because today was a day of QUALITY versus QUANTITY. Here’s the story. About 4 miles out from Santa Barbara Harbor on a southerly course heading we saw a single humpback …
I think I’ll author a journal article entitled “Humpback whales as giant stepping stones to the Santa Barbara Channel Islands.” I’ve got a bit more data to collect and of course all that number crunching. But that is how things shaped up out there today. As Captain Dave and the crew pushed offshore, heading south towards Santa Cruz, the Condor …
5 humpback whales 3,000+ common dolphins 1 bald eagle Captain Mat reports ideal conditions, with sunny and calm seas. Mat’s keen eyes and whale sense prevailed againg today. The humpback sightings were nice and one breached for the fans. The common dolphins were observed all day long throughout the Channel, and the bald eagle was on Santa Cruz Island. best …
Eight humpback whales with lots more in two areas surveyed on an epic day for Southern California Whale Watching. Several distant breaches and some tail lobbing was observed. We approached one humpback whale from a distance as it continually slapped its mighty pectoral fin on the water for many minutes. Others were working areas of obviously high productivity as indicated …
You don’t stay the number one whale watch captain by missing anything. And today Captain Mat was on fire! There were great sea conditions in the Channel and it’s supposed to be even nicer this Saturday and Sunday. Capt Mat used the conditions and his keen sense of whaledar to put the Condor Express near 7 surface lunge feeding humpback …