Mike in the Wild

I thought I knew a thing or two about barracudas.  After all, I've encountered several in Maui and Cozumel, even writing in detail about them over a year ago.  Slow, shadowy, lurking, uninterested in humans, intimidating in appearance, was how I mostly described the usually harmless, large fish.  After my latest visit to a reef off of Cozumel a brand new word entered my lexicon when describing the predator: terrorizing.  Due to strong winds, I got a late start snorkeling on my single day in Cozumel, heeding red flag warnings all morning on the Mexican island's coral reef-fringed western coast.  But at Punta Sur Ecological Park, at the extreme southern end of Cozumel, the weather and surf were postcard perfect.  It didn't take long once I arrived for me to don my fins and mask and head into the inviting and azure Caribbean Sea.  A buoy marked where a reef that's part of a separate protected park begins several hundred meters from the beach.  It's a...

With stops that included Cozumel, Roatan, and Belize, my cruise to the Western Caribbean was mostly dedicated to discovering its marine life.  Lugging my fins, mask, and snorkel, along with an underwater camera, I was prepared to spend most of my port stops swimming and snapping shots of fish that call the vast Mesoamerican Reef connecting these destinations home.  Of course, I also schlepped along my 400mm zoom lens and DSLR camera because birding was also at least a small part of my week-long plan.  You don't need to even disembark a cruise ship to witness the many sea and shore birds that live off of the ocean's bounty.  Gulls are the the most common and will surely escort your ship as it sets sails from any Florida port.  And don't miss the ospreys that ply the surrounding harbor for underwater prey.   As you make your way into tropical waters, frigatebirds and boobies are the most likely birds you'll encounter while at sea.   Wind preven...

I looked up in the sky and saw a bright, white silhouette, gleaming far away in the late afternoon sunlight.  My first thought was of a balloon, perhaps of the Sino spy variety.  However what were the odds another one would float over the United States so soon and so brazenly?  And the shape was all wrong, pointed and oblong.  Still it lumbered slowly, steadily like a glider, mechanically looping over a small area to the south of my Biltmore community.   Of course I soon recognized it as a bird.   My zoom lens conveniently handy, I snapped a couple of shots to definitively identify it.  Red-tailed hawks frequently soar overhead, riding the thermals in wide arcs as they focus on prey hundreds of feet below on the local golf course.  White egrets and great blue herons occasionally traverse the neighborhood skies on their peregrinations along the local canal and between several manmade lakes.  However this bird was none of those: ...

My San Diego-destined ship sailed north off the coast of the Baja California Peninsula, just a short distance past Cabo San Lucas.  The arid, mountainous coastline was visible but a far distance to the east on yet another clear and sunny day: standard weather during my week-long Christmas cruise.  We were still in booby territory, which we wouldn't leave until sometime overnight when we had passed halfway up the peninsula.  As a result, my cruise's sea day was not going to be limited to books, meals, and naps; the sport of action bird photography was on the agenda.  Boobies are common seabirds in tropical regions around the world.  The masked and brown varieties are especially easy to spot on Pacific Ocean cruises off the west coast of Mexico and into the Sea of Cortez, where another species, the blue-footed, is resident.  On my recent cruise, I mostly observed masked boobies.  Sailing north that morning, I was lucky to observe a group (technically kno...

On yet another winter cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, I was greeted with numerous whale sightings.  From Thanksgiving until early spring, the coastal waters are home to humpback whales that leave Arctic environments for warmer climates south to birth their calves and mate.  (Pleasant weather, amour: whales and humans are not so different in their pursuits.) Shortly before reaching Cabo's scenic bay and passing The Arch near the tip of the Baja California peninsula, several whales appeared in our ship's wake.  Then, right after anchoring and again off the ship's stern, at least one whale's back rose above the ocean's surface.  While I missed a live shot, I captured an image of the cetacean's footprint, a circular ring at the sea's surface left by the underwater vortex created by the powerful motion of tail flukes as the creature dives.  Shortly after, either that whale or another reappeared while spouting a misty breath, this time captured on ca...

After almost ten months, I returned to Puerto Vallarta.  Again venturing south of the city and its crowded resorts, I preferred to explore the wild and verdant coastline.  And again, I plunged into Banderas Bay, near Majahuitas, to witness the underwater life with my mask, snorkel, and fins.   However last February, the sea was green and choppy, with terrible visibility.  Algae clouded my views of the king angelfish while my sightings of puffers and starfish were mostly thanks to my guide's grabbing the creatures and holding them up to my mask.   I'm happy to say that on my recent December visit the water was much clearer.  Maybe it was due to the season, or perhaps it was the skipper's decision to drop anchor at a slightly different location, at a cove a mile or so further down the coast from Majahuitas's beach.  Whatever the reason for the improvement in conditions, I was thankful. The stop was earlier in the morning than last time; the sun...

On my first trip to Yelapa, last February, I was enchanted by giant, white butterflies that flitted through the jungle, never stopping long enough for me to capture a photograph.  I wasn't disappointed as there were so many other things to shoot in that remote, picturesque village that hugs the coast of Mexico south of Puerto Vallarta.  Most exciting were two brand-new bird species for me: the yellow-fronted parakeet and the golden-cheeked woodpecker.   However, on my recent return to Yelapa, right after Christmas, I didn't encounter a single noteworthy bird.  So instead, I focused my lens on the exotic butterflies, which seemed to have multiplied in numbers exponentially from my last trip.  Alas, this time, those enormous white ones were nowhere to be seen.  Pink cattleheart in Yelapa. Juno longwing, or juno silverspot, in Yelapa. Malachite in Yelapa. Cloudless sulphurs in Yelapa. Many-banded daggerwing near Yelapa.