Sealion Aces Out the Pelicans

This cleaver California sealion jumped up into the air and snapped up the fish mid-stream before the pelicans could!

What's All the Stink About?

Sea Lion Pup, Zalophus californianus, La Jolla, California  The residents of those gorgeous homes and luxury condominiums and the patrons at the restaurants off the cliffs of La Jolla have been complaining about the stink caused by the sea lion and bird poop.  Notably, the birds had been there, nesting on the cliffs, for years.  However, in the last few years, the sea lions moved up onto the rocks, claiming it as a prime basking spot.  Well, sea lions and birds do what sea lions and birds do, and the rocks became a bit pungent.  The city tried spraying the rocks with bacteria to digest some of the smelly left overs; however, short of on ongoing spraying program, that was just temporary relief.  Soooo....the city opened up the fence to the cliff area, by installing a gate, for the tourists, photographers and others to walk down to take a closer look.  That seems to have cleared out most of the sea lions and, sadly, almost all of the nesting cormorants as well, greatly reducing the smell.  In fact, there were only two cormorant nests on the cliff where there used to be dozens of them.  This little sea lion pup, however, was still there posing for the camera and, gosh, isn't he cute?

Sealion or Seal?

California Sea Lion pup, Zalophus californianus. So, how do you tell sea lion from seal? Sea lions have ears and walk on their flippers like awkward feet. Their flippers will angle downwards and support their weight. Seans rear flippers go straight back and their front flippers off to the side. Hence seals tend to undulate along the sand/ground rather than use their flippers for land propuslsion. Oh, and for you snugglers out there, sea lions like to snuggle one atop the other while seals almost always lie alone even in the midst of a colony.

Exercise for tomorrow: just for fun, go out, take a stroll and turn off all the labels and pretend like you're seeing everything for the first time. Touch the leaves and feel their coolness and texture. Feel the roughness of tree bark. Run your bar toes through the grass. Stop and look at the cool colors and shapes of bugs and lizards. Look at leaves and flowers really close and see the amazing structures that make them work. It's really fun to do every now and then just to remind you of the wonderful things around us that we normally zip by and take for granted.

Sea Lion Fin-basking

Sea Lion Thermoregulating, Mission Bay. What does thermoregulation have to do with holding a fin up in the air anyhow? Apparently, Sea Lions have a lot of capilaries close to the surface in their flippers (not intuitive by any means). To heat themselves, they will hold their flipper out in the sun. To cool themselves, they will dip the flipper in the water and then put it back up in the air for evaporative cooling. Pretty nifty huh?

We decided to go kayaking on Mission bay to celebrate an absolutely gorgeous, sunny day. I, of course, decided that this would allow me to get a little closer to the birds and other sea critters I enjoy photographing from shore. I used my little hand-held pocket digital camera and a case to avoid worrying about it getting wet. Unfortunately, compared to my trusty Nikon, the pocket digital camera pictures are decidedly grainy and not the best in low light. A few came out, particularly if I didn't use the digital zoom but I deleted a lot of them. The above sea lion was perhaps 5-10 feet away and not real worried about my kayak drifting up on him. Of course, one flick of the tail and he would have been far away again so there was no reason for him to have been worried. Dare I bring my Nikon next time? We shall see...

Sea Lions

California Sea Lion pups, La Jolla, CA. As opposed to the harbor seals who nabbed a nice sandy beach, the sea lions contented themselves with a large rock or two along the shore. In the seals' defense, you will note that Sea lions flippers extend downwards like feet making them a little more mobile on dry land than seals who have rear flippers that extend backwards.

Sea Lion Pups

As opposed to the seals that had reserved a whole beach, the California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) had reserved a nice wide piece of rock. They were all stretched out in the sun and lying all over each other in one big snuggly mass. The seals like their space but the sea lions are all for free loving. This picture shows one of the new sea lion pups howling for Mom while another is busily draping himself over pup #1. Oh, and less you think they are too snugly, note that male sea lions reach 8 ft. in length and 860 lbs. Sea lions' natural predators are Orcas and White Sharks.