Wedding March

My friend, Caroline, got married! Here are some pics from her Oct. 2 nuptials to Sean! Congrats!

The cake:


Me and maid of honor, Margaret:


Scary ladies trying to catch the bouquet. I am the one ducking:


Smash in face cake time:

Folsom Lake

Margaret and I swam the .5 and 1 mile race at Lake Natoma/Folsom Lake. The water is notoriously cold! And, the race course was at a different site this year, with lots of rocks to trip on while running out of the water to the finish line.

Warm-up completed. Game faces on.


A little help with the swim cap:


Ready to get my race on!


Race course:


There was this guy who has raced lots of these open water swims, and he has a prosthetic leg that he leaves at the edge of the water, so he can slip it on really fast and run through the chute:


I cannot believe I let Bob (another Manatee) beat me in the .5 mile. All I saw out of the corner of my eye when I was exiting the water was some old guy, and because he wasn't in my age group (or the same sex) it didn't matter if I let him run through the chute before me. Dang it!


Ducks enjoying the swim:


Margaret beating some other lady into the chute:

Pumpkin muffin and lemonade - best fuel ever!


Super smiley, getting in position for the 1 mile race:

Exiting the 1 mile, and I beat Bob!


Margaret finishing her 1 mile:


Checking out the results:


We are both winners, again! I won both .5 and 1 mile, and Margaret got 2nd in both events!

Whiskey & Water

Whiskeytown 2009! Margaret, Caroline, and I swam the 1 and 2 mile in Whiskeytown Lake, early Septemeber. We camped at Whiskeytown, and spent a day at the waterfalls in McCloud.

Lower Falls:


Margaret jumps!


Caroline sittin' pretty:


It took a lot of coaxing and courage to plummet into the FREEZING water:


Swimming as fast as possible to the rocks:


Sucking it all in:


Middle Falls - we weren't crazy enough to jump:


Margaret running through the chute after the 1 mile:


The race course:


Emerging from the 2 mile:


Finished!!


We are ALL winners! I won the 1 & 2 mile, Margaret got 2nd place in the 1 & 2 mile, and Caroline won 3rd in the 2 mile:

Uber cute-ness

white tern chick - cute!

Ghouls Continued!

Wedge-tail shearwaters - scary!!!

Happy Halloween!

My pumpkin from the Mt. Shasta Pumpkin Train ride! I haven't carved a pumpkin in decades!

Attack of the Birds!

Happy Halloween! Channeling a little Hitchcock with the swirling sooty terns. They are kinda scary!

Freaky Friday Frigates

Video of Frigate birds "playing" with a tern. They are sorta like orcas in that aspect - play/killing smaller birds. Older females are juveniles are the ones more likely to participate in this behavior, and steal food from other birds.

What's that you say? A blue whale washed up...?!

Sooooo...don't know if ya'll heard the news - A 72-foot female blue whale washed ashore just south of Fort Bragg, CA (Oct. 19). Evidently, she was struck by a NOAA (ironic, no?) research vessel. Reportedly, the skipper felt the ship hit something, then a bit later a blue whale was seen surfacing with blood gushing out of her...and it is likely that this same whale is the one that washed up dead. How SAD. There are somewhere around 12.000 of these animals left in the world, only a fraction of their population before they were nearly hunted to extinction. Blue whales are the largest animal EVER to have lived on our planet, females can be over 100 ft in length, and weigh just under 200 tons! Because of their size, blue whales do not have any natural predators (at least in this present time period), but it has been noted that killer whales do attack them. Their biggest threats are ship collisions. Two weeks ago, another blue whale washed ashore in Monterey. In the past few years, more blue whales have been documented struck by ships/washing up on beaches in California. Ships need to slow their roll, seriously. I understand that they aren't deliberately trying to hit this animal, but there is almost no good reason that they are being struck. Blu whales are as long as some of these giganic ships, and they are slow moving! They feed on near the surface for goodness sake! They can't really ever sneak up on you now, c'mon! Rant over.

So on my way from Hoopa, I took a 3 hour detour hoping to see this blue whale. I've NEVER seen a blue whale, alive or dead. And, it would be amazing to see one, either way - though I would prefer alive. I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, and after doing a little research on the internet, I discovered that I could go see the whale, if I went through botanical gardens. Soooo...I drove the winding road from 101 to Fort Bragg, and did the whole sneaky-sneak trying to find where the beach access was to see the whale type thing, even though I was trying not to look like it. Hahaha...well, I got to the botanical gardens and found out it cost money to go through, so I got back into my car. On the way noticing another couple doing the sneaky-sneak. I found a road close-by with coastal access, but couldn't actually find the beach...so I went a few miles more south, and found a trail through the woods to the beach. I was way too far south, but got a few nice pics on a cliff. At least I saw the ocean. So then I went back to the botanical gardens, willing to pay, so long as I could see the whale. BUT! When I talked to the lady who works there, she told me NO! I kinda think it is because they don't want people to snoop around looking for the whale, but she said it was on private property. And that they were fining people who were trespassing, and that the whale was 1/4 mile more south. I got a bit discouraged, seeing as I took an enormous detour to see the whale. So I went back to the beach access road about 1/4 mile down the road. Then I found a sign that said I couldn't see the whale from that point, and she was more north on private property. UGH! Defeated. And I don't have the money to pay a fine, so I got back in my car and drove another 3.5 hours home, and hung my head in shame.

My search for the whale:



No whale, but look what else I found:

Up Close and Personal

Weaner sleeping:


Front flipper:


New tags:


Algae on adult male:


New amputation:


Mob wound reopened (large on mid-dorsal) and new ones posterior:


Male mobber, who beat him up?

Mom and Pup

Mom and young pup playing in the water.

Molters!

Monk seals molt during the end of summer and into fall. Females usually molt first, specifically the younger ones, and those that did not have pups. Juveniles also molt during this time, the healthier ones molting first. Then after females have weaned their pups, and fattened up again, they come back to the island to molt! Males invest so much energy into trying to mate with females, so they tend to molt during the end of summer, and into the fall. Molting only takes about a week! Monk seals are the most closely related to Elephant Seals, so it is no surprise that they molt the same way - catastrophic molt. They shed sheets of old skin/fur, not just the hair itself, and it only takes about a week. And they are a shiny, silver color when they are done! They are so sleek when they are molted, and sometimes you can see scars or natural bleaches that you usually can't see, so surprise!

Of course when they are molting, the seals are very aggro! They usually stay hauled out for the duration of molt, sometimes going into the water to cool off. But they are not feeding, and tend to hang out in the same area for the whole time. They are also very stinky - probably all the oils! They seem to be very uncomfortable during molt - pretty understandable, because I would be really itchy if all my skin was sloughing off at once! So we are especially careful not to disturb molters...but sometimes they come up to camp!

Here is a sub-adult male hauling up at camp, and scratching himself on anything available:



TE50 also molted at camp...and rubbed all up on my tent, and knocked down my tent poles!






Almost finished molting:


Close up of old pelage being molted, and the new silvery coat underneath: