Framedlight

After watching the seals for a while we went to the beach next to Point Piedras Blancas, intending to walk to the lighthouse. We never got there as we were too distracted by the birds on the beach. Here are pictures of the beach and it's inhabitants. Finally we were able to watch a sea otter from the cliffs above. Below are pictures of the long billed curlew and, I think the bird with the shorter bill is a whimbrel Below is the great egret and a gull! A little shack on the side of the shore Below are pictures of a sea otter seen from the cliffs above the beach. He has a stone on his belly which he uses to break crab and mollusc shells. As you can see he bangs the food on the shell. Finally another brown pelican

After lunch we went over to a 'Discovery Centre' by the car park in San Simeon and found that there were 2 places a little further north where you could see elephant seals. The first area was quiet and we stayed there for a while watching the animals. The adult males were still at sea so we were looking at the ladies and juveniles. The adolescent males were feisty and kept rising from their normal stupor and having brief skirmishes, after which they would settle back down to sleep. Sleeping was done in heaps, preferably one above the other. In the height of the winter season there are apparently around 16,000 of these giant seals breeding along this stretch of coast. Here is a picture of an overview of their rookery. Seals were not the only animals on offer. Here is an egret and below a rock full of cormorants and then a pelican. This seal had a penchant for seaweed. There were lot of runny noses. ...