Pupping Season

 

Northern Elephant Seal Cow & Pup at Pt. Reyes National Seashore

The adult seal above was getting a little touchy about another seal getting too close to its pup. Viewing the seals from Chimney Rock this morning was an interesting, noisy, funny, and awe-inspiring spectacle. The pups looked to have been born fairly recently and were definitely younger than the ones spread out all over Drake's Beach.

I arrived at the entrance to Drake's Beach in time to catch the sunrise, only to find the beach was closed. It's only open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so you can't be there for sunrise or sunset. And even when it's open, that doesn't include the beach itself, which is completely closed, having been overtaken by many elephant seals. A dozen years ago you could walk out on the beach among a handful of the huge seals, including the bulls, but the beach is nearly covered with animals now, and you have to view the proceedings from the parking lot or visitor center. 

Instead of greeting the sun at Drake's, I kept on driving and hiked out to Chimney Rock in near-darkness, where I had the place to myself for a couple of hours. Afterward I drove around a little before Drake's finally opened, but soon left. The seal photography out at Chimney Rock had been much better.

It was getting close to sunrise when I finally hiked out to a nice vantage point on Chimney Rock. I'd hoped the clouds would flare up with color but it was not to be.

This was one of the two main seal colonies out around Chimney Rock.

View back towards the way I hiked in.

Morning at Chimney Rock

Orange Trentepohlia algae on the rocks.

I'd hoped to spot a peregrine falcon out here, but was surprised instead to see a great blue heron hunting at the base of the cliff. It spotted me right off and flew away.

Dancing With Vertigo

Lots of young elephant seal pups and moms.

Seals at Rest

Seal Pow-wow

The newborn seal pup wasn't moving at all, perhaps too tired after the work of being born into this crazy world. Note the pup in the lower part of the frame with pink-colored placenta or umbilicus still hanging on.

There's a lot of wind noise, but the seal cacophony still breaks through.

There were a few early-season wildflowers, like these Pt. Reyes wallflowers (Erysimum concinnum).

Also a pretty yellow paintbrush (Castilleja wightii).

Pt. Reyes Wallflower

This gumweed (Grindelia stricta) was so prostrate I didn't even recognize what it was at first.

There were only a few of these tiny purple violets (maybe Western dog violet, Viola adunca) hidden in the low foliage.

As the sun rose, many of the seals began flipping sand on their backs for a little sunscreen protection.

Pups & Mamas

A male elephant seal cavorted in the shallows just offshore of the harem/colony.

He was the only male close by, and I wondered if he was the beachmaster for this harem.

The last time I saw gulls feeding on pup-birthing remains was down at Piedras Blancas, which is probably the best viewing site in the state. Nevertheless, I felt like Chimney Rock provided outstanding viewing.

The blacktail buck had the meadow to himself. I wonder what these fields of green will look like after a few years with no cows grazing on them.

It was kind of weird to see those long views of green rolling hills with no dairy cows.

Pt. Reyes Beach

There was a large harem of elk cows in the field adjacent to the road to Drake's Beach, but I didn't see any bulls around.

Most of the elk were lying down in the sun like this one.

I spotted a bobcat on my way out toward Tomales Point, but it was quite far away.

I wished he'd been closer when he made a comical pounce on a gopher, his rear legs pumping in the air while seemingly balanced entirely on his head, only to come up empty.

Farther along I spotted another culprit in the weeds off the side of the road, but this one turned out to be a snoozing coyote.

He briefly looked up from his nap, but settled back into snooze mode. A herd of cows very nearby was mooing their brains out, probably because they thought I was there to feed them. I don't think they worried one bit about the coyote.

I saw quite a few kestrels out there, but they were too skittish to let me get a close shot.

I was surprised when this gorgeous roadside red-tailed hawk let me fire off a couple of frames.

The mustard field out by the Kehoe Family ranch was in bloom. They still had a few cows out there.

I was wondering if the Park Service will remove all the barbed-wire fencing throughout the area. I'd like to have tried to get closer to the bobcat I saw but didn't want to climb through or over the fence to get into the field.

White-crowned sparrows.

There were lots of meadowlarks out at Chimney Rock and elsewhere, but they too were very skittish and hard to photograph.

I got almost all the way out to Pierce Ranch before seeing a bull elk at close range. Most seemed to be waaaaay in the distance. This one was probably guarding his harem of numerous elk cows nearby.

A great blue heron hunting in a field.

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Allen's Hummingbird

Allen's Hummingbird, Middle Lake

I've been wondering when I'd see my first Allen's hummingbird of the year, and today was the day. I believe all the green on its back confirms this as an Allen's as opposed to a rufous hummingbird. Last year it was late February before I started to see them in Golden Gate Park. 

I lucked into the sighting as I was looking for a way to photograph the buffleheads who were paddling around and diving in the lake. Their white feathers are too bright to photograph well in sunlight, so I thought today's cloud cover might give me a decent opportunity. On my way I was sidetracked by a particularly birdy area and spent a fair amount of time trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph a common yellowthroat and a few other birds. 

When I first arrived I'd seen the Allen's hummingbird nectaring off the plant above, but it buzzed away and didn't return for quite a while. I was glad I'd worn a longjohn top under my bike jacket today, but I eventually got cold even so. The buffleheads, who'd been close to shore when I first saw them from a distance, had moved farther away by the time the hummer buzzed off again, so I never did try to photograph them.

A tiny bird flew into a hole, and while I was waiting to see if it would come back out, this squirrel popped into the scene, right in front of the bird-hole, and almost immediately did a U-turn when he saw me. I never saw the mystery bird and finally figured it had absconded through a rear exit.

Kind of surprising to still be seeing flushes of honey mushrooms. This has been a great rain year for large fleshy fungi like these and jumbo gyms.

The sky was so uniform for most of the morning that I was intrigued by this leak of definition. The weather forecast includes sprinkles today, but I haven't noticed any yet.

The bison were close to the back fence today and looked too beautiful to pass up.

A couple of them were even grazing. And a couple of times the grazing ones trundled to a new spot. I kind of got a chill of awe watching these massive animals walk by so close at hand. They are a much more formidable and elegant beast when all that mass is in motion.

Only one of the Balboa Natural Area red-tailed hawks has been around lately. This one had pounced on something below its perch in the cypress tree, but came up empty.

RBS was at his favorite tree again today. The sapsucker holes are multiplying....

The hummingbird, common yellowthroat, bewick's wren, ruby-crowned kinglet, and Townsend's warbler were all playing hard to get, so I snapped another shot of a hermit thrush that was kind enough to be still for a moment.

Allen's hummingbird on a willow branch.

Flexing the gorget.

I couldn't resist taking another photo of the red-bellied sapsucker on my way out of the area. The little red berry in the background was a bonus. Interesting that it appears to be hanging upside-down. Probably a phenomenon akin to ytivarg.

Mt. Shasta yesterday and today.

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