Ventura County Star: Michael Smith scanned the horizon, searching for the telltale sign that a whale and her youngster were near. With his powerful binoculars trained on the sea, Smith stood atop a cliff and looked up and down the Santa Barbara coast, hoping to spot a plume of water rising up from the diamonds of sun bouncing off the ocean. This is the time of year that mother gray whales shepherd their young up the coastline as they make their long journey from the birth waters in Mexico to the feeding …