May 28, 2021 Spring has sprung at the beach... 

The beach grass is greener, the
seasonal birds are returning, and seal pups are about.  Have had the opportunity to watch over a couple of pups as the eagles are plentiful this season and voracious.  They don't seem to mind if the pup is still alive or not (sorry for that graphic).  They also seem to hold a grudge.  They use to fly off just at the approach of a car, now they seem to be glaring at me and standing their ground.

This is a harbor porpoise that got beached and was being stalked by an eagle.  It was doing its best flipping its tail to try and ward off its would be attacker.

  Checking with my trusty Google, found a number to call and what to do.  After talking with the local aquarium was given the ok to try and get it into a nearby crab hole until they got there.  This porpoise was about 4', they get to be about 5' and 165 lbs.  Managed to get it to the crab hole and once in I promptly fell backwards into the water... Didn't realize till later that my phone had fallen out of my pocket, couldn't find it.  The porpoise seemed to be active but then kept rolling on to its back.  Google said to try and support it till help arrived, so that is what I did till the aquarium people got there.  It seemed to panic a bit when I would let go and calmed down when I would talk to it and support it.  The aquarium peeps scooped it into a cooler and tried to coax it back out into the ocean.  I watched for a bit but the porpoise kept coming back in, my heart was a bit sunk and being a bit soggy decided to leave and not know the out come...   I got an update a couple days later that they decided to take it to an estuary for it to rest up.  Had reports of it for two days and had posted on facebook for reports of sightings.  No reports of it, alive or dead, so the aquarium peeps say they take the stance everything worked out...YEAH!

Two days later after replacing my phone I was off to the beach again.  This time an eagle was looking to make a morsel out of this newbie harbor seal.

So cute!!!!  So another call, direct to the local aquarium this time.  Many hours later after warding off the birds of prey I left the scene to the aquarium peeps who posted some signs to warn observers to stay at least 100' away.  The mother seals will usually leave the pups to rest while they go foraging.  They advised I could go watch but to say quite a ways away since the mom won't come up if people are around.  Was a bit apprehensive since there were surfers and I saw a whale spouting (not sure what breed).  When I made my way back the little one had gone into the surf and was making a couple of runs in an out and finally disappeared into the surf.  BTW, did you know that seals surf too?  I didn't get it on film, it took a bit of time to figure out what I was seeing and by then it had had enough.

This was the following week, this little one had just made it to shore and was rolling and stretching.  

Did you know that harbor seals nurse their pups?  They can do it on land or in the water and it is speed nursing.  The pup nurses for about 1 minute ever 3-4 hours!

And then there are the star fish... Pisaster ochraceus

I had not realized the first photo that the star fish had apparently been moved from its original spot until I saw the photo at home.  I was impressed with the "foot print" in the sand that it left and hence this last photo along with the gull prints.  I didn't take the starfish but put it into the tidal pool.

They can be 10-18" in diameter and a few different colors.  My size 11 foot for reference on this specimen found a couple of weeks ago.  They also have a seaborn fertilization process, like the sand dollar, and the babies have different larvae stages before taking on the starfish shape. 

Other sights of note:

Ok, ok, I know, more sand dollars, but they are just so cute and cool!  

And this one?!  It was so fragile and had been broken so precisely and uniquely.  Unfortunately it crumbled a couple of days later but it was an intriguing find.  The thing on the right?  Not sure what kinda shell it is, looks like a hardened snake skin, but really small...

Ok, more beach art....

Extremely low tides, you never know what will show up.  Saw this on Tuesday, the tire in the back actually had quite a lot of tread left on it, was tempted to try and salvage it, in the end looked like too much work to dig it out.  Was thinking in a day or two might be easier.  There were really deep tide pools/crab holes that showed up this day.  And today  its almost all covered over again, so no salvaging the tire.

And lastly, a warning, the following is a decayed seal, but really decayed from being in the ocean.  So you are forewarned.  Although it is a nasty thing, it is also quite interesting in the colors and the decay.  So if you have the nerve for it...