We are located just up the coast from a place called Simpson Reef & Shell Island. This place is an important location for seals, sea lions, and even elephant seals to come ashore and give birth. The elephant seals do this in the winter months and are all gone now, but there are LOTS of harbor seals with pups down there these days.
The students were interested and excited to see the marine mammals. After all, this isn't the sort of thing you see in eastern Idaho.
This photo, taken looking north along the coast, shows Simpson Reef with waves breaking to the far left, and Shell Island, the inverted cone shaped peak in the middle of the photo.
If you have binoculars or a spotting scope you can see the seals and sea lions on the sandy beach on the leeward side of Shell Island. This patch of sand stays above the tide line at all times.
The darker animals that are more upright are sea lions and the lighter, browner ones are mostly harbor seals. There are also some Stellar sea lions around...they are much bigger than the smaller California sea lions.
As you hike along the shore it is not uncommon to see harbor seal mothers with pups, some very young.
Here's a harbor seal mother and pup around the point from Sunset Beach. This is a very young pup. It's so young that it has to hitchhike on its mother's back while they swim.
The following photos show some mother-pup groups hauled out on the rocks between Sunset Bay and Simpson Reef.
And when the sky is clear Oregon gives up fantastic sunsets.
Stay tuned for more updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment