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Monday, December 31, 2012

Pupping Beach

A good number of the elephant seals have arrive on the beaches north of Cambria for the birth of their pups.  There were huge crowds of people the day I was there, but not a lot of pups had yet been born. 

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This little guy was pretty young and still in his rumpled velvet fur.

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There’s a lot of jostling and loud complaints whenever the females get to close to their neighbor.

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While most of the elephant seals are a dun brown, this lovely lady decided to go blond and was a gleaming presence in all that tan.

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And always time for lunch.

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Or a good scratch.  Or the need to keep an eye on the lurking seagull who was clearly up to no good.

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There seemed to be several sets of twins on the beach this year.  Don’t think that’s typical .  And as with all twins in the wild, one usually doesn’t make it since the mother only has resources to fully nourish one pup.

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And, of course, this being elephant seal beach, here come the guys, lurching sneakily onto the beach, looking for a chance at a stray female who might escape from the various harems.

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Heading home.  Can there be a lovelier place to live? Or a more spectacular place to greet the New Year, a year I hope will be a good one for all. 

4 comments:

Alon Perlman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alon Perlman said...

Where is the “Like” button on this thing?
Anyway, here is an old timer ”link here”

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/4000/4410/cusb-cyl4410d.mp3
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?queryType=@attr%201=1016%20&query=Auld&num=1&start=2&sortBy=&sortOrder=ia
And more from Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_lang_syne

Happy new and Anuo nuevo seal pups.

Churadogs said...

Alon: I think "like" buttons are only on Facebook?

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Thanks for the lovely pix Ann - an amazing sight for visitors, who do come here from all over the world to see these guys.