“What was the shape and size and color and tone of this little expedition? We slipped into a new frame and grew to be a part of it, related in some subtle way to the reefs and beaches, related to the little animals, to the stirring waters and the warm brackish lagoons. This trip had dimension and tone. It was a thing whose boundaries seeped through itself and beyond into some time and space that was more than all the Gulf and more than all our lives.”
John Steinbeck – Log from the Sea of Cortez.
Mammals
Bottlenose Dolphin
California Sealion
Short-finned Pilot Whale
Killer Whale
Bryde’s Whale
Black Jackrabbit
Antelope Squirrel
Birds
Laughing Gull
Brown Pelican
Yellow-footed Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Osprey
Belted Kingfisher
Double-crested Cormorant
Brandt’s Cormorant
Reddish Egret
Snowy Egret
Caspian Tern
Magnificent Frigatebird
Tricoloured Heron
White Ibis
Whimbrel
Turkey Vulture
Willet
Great Blue Heron
American Golden Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Blue-footed Booby
Eared Grebe
Brown Booby
American Oystercatcher
Common Raven
Northern Mockingbird
Lesser Goldfinch
Cassin’s Finch
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Gila Woodpecker
Black-throated Sparrow
California Gnatcatcher
Red Cardinal
Costa’s Hummingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Heerman’s Gull
Violet-green Swallow
Black-capped Night Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
Verdin
Golden Eagle
Spotted Sandpiper
Canyon Wren
Black-vented Shearwater
Peregrine
House Finch
Little Blue Heron
Great Egret
Lesser Scaup
Red Billed Tropic Bird
Craveri’s Murrelet
Lesser Nighthawk
White-crowned Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Green-tailed Towhee
Western Scrub-Jay
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Fish
Yellowtail Surgeonfish
Bicolor Parrotfish
Leopard Grouper (including a golden phase)
Manta Ray
Green Moray
Moorish Idol
Guineafowl Puffer
Cortez Rainbow Wrasse
Giant Damselfish
Scissortail Damselfish
Flatiron Herring
Blue-and-Gold Snapper
King Angelfish
Barberfish
Sergeant Major
Pacific Beaubrummel
Mexican Hogfish
Longnose Hawkfish
Yellowfin Surgeonfish
Finescale Triggerfish
Coral Hawkfish
Cortez Damselfish
Mexican Goatfish
Rainbow Runner
Pacific Sierra
Spotted Porcupinefish
Yellow Jack
Convict Tang
Machete
Banded Guitarfish
Spotted Green Puffer
Threebanded Butterflyfish
Diamond Stingray
Wounded Wrasse
Spottail Grunt
Cornetfish
Bumphead Damselfish
Cortez Garden Eel
Blunthead Triggerfish
Cortez Grunt
Graybar Grunt
Panamic Fanged Blenny
Orangeside Triggerfish
Jewel Moray
Bullseye Stingray
Yellow Snapper
Barred Pargo
Blue-and-Yellow Chromis
Zebra Moray
Sunset Wrasse
I can already hear the invertebrate taxonomists that I used to work with “where’s the invert list!!??” But this really is a place of fish, although the coral warrants mentioning. Also looking at this list it seems that I need to learn how to identify the beautiful reptiles here! More books required….
Photos: Short-nosed Rock Lizard, Short-finned Pilot Whale, Bottlenose Dolphins, Green Turtle, Yellow-footed Gull, Immature Brandt's Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Speckled Rattlesnake, Wilson's Plover, California Sealion, Espiritu Santo Striped Whipsnake
