A bird with multiple personalities

One of the most interesting characters in the animal kingdom is living among us here in Los Cabos. We are talking about a medium-sized raptor with a bold white and black plumage pattern, and a bright yellow face and legs.

This bird, due to the conditions of the ecosystems it inhabits, presents various and unique adaptations. This bird lives solitary or with its mate, who stays loyal for all its life like most falcons and eagles do. It is the only falcon that nests and it usually does this on rocks or small bushes.

It feeds on small rodents, lizards and other birds, but its principal meal comes from carrion. The Crested Caracara, Mexican Eagle or Quelele also plays the role of a buzzard, taking any chance to have a feast on the carcasses of dead animals. This contributes to the cleansing process, which is very important in the desert environment where dryness makes the rotting process impossible. One of its principal adaptations is the lengthening of the legs which allows it to walk or even run, making it unique among all falcons.

The Caracaras were persecuted for a long time, almost to the point of extinction in several states because people used to believe that they stole the calves of cattle. Recently they have become a protected species and some populations are becoming stable again.

So do not lose the chance of exploring all these wonders and remember to keep your eyes open.

The Arch of Stone

We are living one of the greatest adventures on the planet as are all the other inhabitants of this land too. We are sailing away in a northwest direction at 1.6 inches a year on a boat known as The Baja California Peninsula. According to the Continental Drift Theory, the surface (crust) of the planet is divided into many floating pieces (something similar to a soccer ball but with irregular shapes instead of hexagons) that are moving and crashing against each other. We are at the edge of one of these called The Pacific Plate. The rest of México, with the USA and Canada, are on the North American Plate, which is pushing us.

This has been happening for millions of years and it is the reason why the Peninsula and the Gulf were created 6 million years ago. During this time life has adapted and specialized due to climatic changes also. Can you imagine that this place was a tropical forest just 2 million years ago? We have one of the highest rates of “ENDEMIC” (plants and animals living exclusively in one region) species in the world, beaten just by Australia, a Continent! Researchers from all around the world are interested in places like this to try to understand how life has evolved on our planet, due to the huge diversity of species and “local” climates.

We are facing a huge challenge as we live on Nature’s Ultimate Experimental Field. We MUST not just admire and enjoy it but also preserve it. Let us respect all the other species who live with us on this Ark of stone. Do you dare to accept the challenge?

The wise one of the depth

Every thirty years a never ending struggle for life starts…the birth of a baby sea turtle. Turtles are reptiles that live on either fresh or salty water, and are very easy to recognize because they have their own armor, the shell.

Besides this they are like almost all other reptiles, they lay eggs, and are ecto thermic, meaning they depend on the surrounding temperature to regulate their own. Unlikely that what happens on cartoons, turtles cannot be separated from their shell, since this is welded to their skeleton.

Approximately every thirty years, sea turtles return to the beach they were born to make nests on the sand, and that way complete the cycle of life, while lying eggs that will hatch within thirty days, becoming the new warriors of life, ready to continue the battle for life; that is a very important reason to avoid driving motor vehicles close to the shore, because this makes the sand compact, impeding the baby turtles reaching the surface. Other situation that menaces them is the indiscriminate hunting. It is misbelieved that they are very nutritious but they are not like the best we can eat since they have lots of parasites due to their stationary way of living and also because some of them feed on sponges or jelly fish that can be toxic to humans.

Please do not buy or eat turtle meat or their eggs, this is the best way we can help these magnificent warriors, if we want our children to have the fortune to know the SEA TURTLES.

Blue-Footed Booby

Espiritu Santo Island

Blue-footed boobies are aptly named, and males take great pride in their fabulous feet. During mating rituals, male birds show off their feet to prospective mates with a high-stepping strut. The bluer the feet, the more attractive the mate.

Like other boobies, blue-foots nest on land at night. When day breaks, they take to the air in search of seafood, sometimes fishing in cooperative groups. They may fly far out to sea while keeping a keen eye out for schools of small fish, such as anchovies. When their prey is in sight, these seabirds utilize the physical adaptations that make them exceptional divers. They fold their long wings back around their streamlined bodies and plunge into the water from as high as 80 feet (24 meters). Blue-footed boobies can also dive from a sitting position on the water’s surface.

Blue-footed boobies also use their webbed feet to cover their young and keep them warm. When a typical brood of one to three chicks hatches, both parents feed and care for them.

All half-dozen or so booby species are thought to take their name from the Spanish word “bobo.” The term means “stupid,” which is how early European colonists may have characterized these clumsy and unwary birds when they saw them on land—their least graceful environment.