Seahabilitated in Pacific Grove! Monterey Bay Made My Day!

I've made no secret of the fact that I feel most at home near water.  I don't even think it matters what type of water it is!  But one thing is for certain - put me within a block of the ocean and I am relaxed and at peace instantly.

And so, after my fabulous time at Mission San Juan Bautista which had already started me on a very happy path, I knew my next destination had to be the ocean next for some sun, exercise, and photography. 

I parked my car about 6 blocks away, up the hill, so I could get some exercise and headed towards the shore.  

I walked along the recreation trail looking at beautiful Mother Nature. 
I saw a little colony of sleepy seagulls enjoying the afternoon sun. 

Yaaawwwwnnnnn!

They have pink feet!  Cute, pink feet. 

I was also unreasonably excited to see a gulp of Brandt's Cormorants on a rock.  And even more excited to see what a cute photo I got of one of them leaping from the rock into the sea. 

Yep, believe it or not, a grouping of cormorants is called a gulp.
They have some other names too, but I like using gulp.  

Here's how you tell a Brandt's Cormorant from a Double-crested Cormorant.  That's a Brandt's Cormorant on the left (hint:  It's predominately black).  That is NOT a Double-Crested Cormorant on the right.  
It's a seagull silly!

No, but seriously though, a Brandt's cormorant has wispy white "hairs" on the sides of its head and on its shoulders.  It also has a shorter tail. 

And there is very little yellow on it's face and throat.  Instead, their throats are bright blue to match their eyes.  Unfortunately, they were a little too far out and not facing in the right direction for me to capture these beautiful features.  

You can see their blue throats a little though.  

If you look really hard.  

And maybe squint a little. 

For comparison purposes, here is a photo I took a couple weeks ago of a Double-crested Cormorant floating on the Sacramento River.  Note the yellow face, green eye, longer tail feathers, and more of the grayish scalloping on the back feathers.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program from Monterey Bay.  This is a long view of Lover's Point.  I had parked my car pretty much directly  up from Lover's Point and walked about 10-15 blocks or so at this point. 

I just love the Cypress trees!

I stopped to take another shot of the gulp of cormorants with their jagged perch. When I looked at my picture, I realized that what I thought was another cormorant in the water was actually two otters!  So adorable!  They photobombed the birds!

They were such a cute couple, rolling and playing as they swam away from me. 

I had a good time watching the photographer in the next photo for a while.  He was trying to get a shot of a seagull sitting on a rock with a wave breaking over it.  But the seagull, who was not stupid, flew up in the air just before each wave hit.  Right before I took this photo, he flew away for good. lol!  

And then, I saw my next otter couple.  These guys were a lot closer to shore but it was still hard to get really good photos (even with my 300mm!). 

BUT!  I had to include them here because these two were freaking funny!  

They were floating along with food on their bellies. 

You can see the guy on the left has a big conch? shell and the guy on the right has a nice abalone.

Nom, nom, nom!

OMG, the dude on the right is drinking every last bit of abalone!  

Just like a kid with a bowl of cereal!

And then he was like, "I don't have any more.  Do you?"

"Nom, no...No...I don't have any more either."  "I don't believe you...let me see!"

"Give me some!"  And then he pounced on his friend and they both disappeared under the gentle waves.  It was so hilarious!

At this point, I realized that my time was running out and I had just a very short window to visit the Monarch Sanctuary before I had to head for home.  

So I hotfooted it up the hill, back into the residential streets and headed for my car.  I had to snap a few shots on the way even though I was trying to hurry as fast as my fat ass would go.  

Then I hopped in my car and headed to see some butterflies!  

TBC...  

xoxo

Nikon D3300

Boat Trip in Grays Harbor Washington Part II

On my last post, we were out on the beautiful Pacific Ocean and Grays Harbor in Washington State.  Such an amazing place with tons of marine mammals, birds, ships, and beautiful views!  You can Revisit Part I by clicking that link!

In the meantime, here's a little video I created (my first really) to memorialize the wonderful trip and the amazing time we had watching the birds out in the open ocean.  I promise there is no annoying music. 

We had so much fun sitting there watching all the birds come in and fight for the fish.  Sabrina and I were just snapping away the entire time!  Let me tell you, it is HARD to take video on a boat in the ocean, even though it was a relatively calm day!

And now for the pictures:

Look at all the fish!  Anyone know what kind?

Pelicans coming for a landing in black and white

There were so many birds out there!  I love this shot which is a good illustration of pelican pouches in various states.

And in this guys pouch, you can actually see the outline of the fish he's swallowing!

I'm kind of fascinated with pelicans.  They are so prehistoric looking!  If you look carefully, you can see the head of a fish that the guy in the front is scooping up. 

And then off they flew!

But soon it was time to go back into the harbor before we ran out of gas.  Lee wanted to take me under the bridge we drove over, which can only be done when the tide is high, which is evidenced in the next picture by the waves breaking. 

And under we go!  This bridge is actually pretty close to Sabrina and Lee's house.  And it's right next to Brady's Oysters, where we usually stop for some delectable ocean delights. Last year, we witnessed a bad accident, so it's no longer Angela's favorite highway, that's for sure.  

After we had cruised around under the bridge, we headed back to the marina.  But first, I had a question.  Periodically there are these towers in the water.  They are a single pole with a ladder going up to a basket on the top.  I wanted to know what they were for.  

I guess I really had two questions because I also wanted to know if I could climb up one.  I was DYING to climb up one.  Verna seconded my idea enthusiastically.  Lee?  Not so enthusiastic.  

Last time I was in Washington Lee got pulled over because us ladies were sitting in lawn chairs in the back of the truck while we were riding on the beach.  He was really not excited to get in trouble again.  But how could he resist us???

And in a MASTERFUL show of boat piloting...errrr...driving....errr whatever, he pulled that boat next to the ladder and up we climbed!  Verna went first while Sabrina and I made sure the boat didn't rub the ladder.  And then up I went!

Thank you Sabrina for the lovely shot of my ass, and Angela for the screen grab and threat to put it on Facebook!  Beat you to it!!

Let me tell you, those rungs HURT and they were covered with bird poop.  But it was WORTH IT!  Verna and I were KING OF THE WORLD!  I believe Sabrina has a photo of us, but I don't have it yet.  We wanted Lee to pull the boat away so you could see how high up we were and how far out in the water we were, but he was a bit nervous.  

And then we saw the Coast Guard helicopter take off and we thought we were flat busted!  Verna shimmied down the ladder, but then became a bit indecisive about how exactly to get back on the boat.  So of course she had one hand and foot on the ladder, one hand and foot on the boat... Lee was getting a little nervous about that helicopter and let his attention waver for a second and Verna looked like a big X!  We thought she was going to fall in for sure, but Lee corrected quickly.  

A little too much, to be honest, because then she got squished between the boat and the ladder!  I was so worried, but I honestly couldn't help laughing somewhat hysterically!  It was like a freaking cartoon!

But soon she was safely on the boat, so I went down the ladder as fast as I could and jumped on board so Lee could put some space between us and the tower before we got arrested. 

Luckily, the Coast Guard was otherwise occupied, picking up a boarding party off of one of the huge ships. 

It was really cool to see them winching men up one after the other. 

But we soon saw another menacing sight...a Coast Guard ship heading our way! And yes, that little tower to your right of the boat is very similar to what we climbed up. 

But they were just going back to base and we all breathed another sigh of relief!  And then we headed back in as well. 

I love this sequence of this pelican landing on the breakwater.  

Not just for the graceful beauty of these birds...

 But also because there was one pelican who didn't want any more birds landing!

 It's the old man pelican equivalent to "Get off my lawn!!"  Haha!

 Pelican says "I do what I want!"

Cormorants!  And I believe you can see the crest on the double-crested cormorant on the bottom left!

And on these guys too! Kind of. 

 Another great shot of a pelican flying low above the water. 

When we got back to shore and Verna told Angela about our adventure, she let Verna have it!

 Apparently Verna doesn't know how to swim!!!!!  OMG!  I totally would have dived in to save her. 

What a lovely day!  We finished up by stopping at Brady's Oysters where my big brother bought me some oysters, clams, and an adorable mug which proudly adorns my desk at work. 

This is a tower like the one we climbed, but this one is closer inland to Brady's oysters.  

So much FUN!

xoxo

Nikon D3300