Katy Penland
Well-known member
As if they can read calendars, the first "official" whales steamed past the American Cetacean Society's census point on December 2 (the census folks man -- person? -- their posts from Dec 1 - May 15 each year). To date, if I'm reading their chart right, they've seen roughly 50 whales since the 2nd.
Well, today when I decided to go out to the cliffs to see what birds our storm might have blown in after the previous day's Beaufort 6 conditions, there were 7 blows out in Santa Monica Bay. But they never came any closer. The whole day!! Just milling around in mid-bay blowing and, whenever I looked at them, never fluking (throwing their tails high into the air signally a deeper, longer dive). Two of the 7 blows were rather small, but that could either be due to the residual wind dissipating it quickly, or possibly a couple of calves were born en route. Which might also explain them just hanging out instead of continuing south. Maybe they were giving the kids a chance to "get their breaths" so to speak before continuing the last 3,000 miles to the warmer waters of the Baja lagoons.
A young male California Sea Lion hauled out on the rocks at the cliff base caused a bit of a stir. Apparently someone thought he was dead and tried to get "someone" to come out and "rescue" it. But when the furball stretched, yawned, scratched and rolled over, they decided it wasn't dead after all. LOL!
As for birds, nothing unusual except for a smaller, lighter-colored scoter leading a string of Surf Scoters. Possibly a Black Scoter first winter male, or adult female? Another birder with a scope saw it, too, but didn't know what it was. And neither of us with a camera. I'll ask one of the local experts on the likelihood of this being a Black, which I believe is a bit south of its normal winter range.
Well, today when I decided to go out to the cliffs to see what birds our storm might have blown in after the previous day's Beaufort 6 conditions, there were 7 blows out in Santa Monica Bay. But they never came any closer. The whole day!! Just milling around in mid-bay blowing and, whenever I looked at them, never fluking (throwing their tails high into the air signally a deeper, longer dive). Two of the 7 blows were rather small, but that could either be due to the residual wind dissipating it quickly, or possibly a couple of calves were born en route. Which might also explain them just hanging out instead of continuing south. Maybe they were giving the kids a chance to "get their breaths" so to speak before continuing the last 3,000 miles to the warmer waters of the Baja lagoons.
A young male California Sea Lion hauled out on the rocks at the cliff base caused a bit of a stir. Apparently someone thought he was dead and tried to get "someone" to come out and "rescue" it. But when the furball stretched, yawned, scratched and rolled over, they decided it wasn't dead after all. LOL!
As for birds, nothing unusual except for a smaller, lighter-colored scoter leading a string of Surf Scoters. Possibly a Black Scoter first winter male, or adult female? Another birder with a scope saw it, too, but didn't know what it was. And neither of us with a camera. I'll ask one of the local experts on the likelihood of this being a Black, which I believe is a bit south of its normal winter range.
