Field Trip Photos

My husband, who teaches marine biolgoy at the community college, recently took his marine biology class up to Central California for a tidepool project. The cool thing about the place he goes (we've been going to the same tidepools for years) is that it's north of Point Conception. Point Conception is considered a big floral and faunal break on the California Coast. Which means, you see all sorts of different organisms in those tidepools from the tidepools down south. He caught these photos of a sea otter right past the surf zone while he was there. He was up on the bluff and got these pics with our zoom lens. They are not completely clear photos, but you can totally see the crab that the sea otter is eating! Tooooo cool!!!





He also went to see the elephant seals. San Simeon is a major hauling out point for the females to have their babies and for the males to establish harems and territories for the breeding season. And it's totally protected, so you can't get within a certain distance of the seals. The males and females have already had their babies and gone and the seals that are left are the juvenille pups. They are so cute, learning to swim and getting ready for their journey out to sea. Some are even molting right now. Hurrah for the zoom lens!!



And in the midst of all this glorious sea life...he got photos of this...


Hearst Castle is right where he was and it was rumored that William Hurst had all sorts of exotic animals on his property. When he died, it was rumored again that somebody let all the animals go into the wild. We've been going up that coast for years and never seen the zebras. But this time, he caught them on film!!! What a trip to be traveling by the beach and seeing zebras too!!

Thanks for checking out the photos!!