A Raft of Otters

Southern Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, ISO: 250, f/5.6, 1/2000s

A group of sea otters is called a raft.  It makes total sense when you see one.

I don't know how long they've been there, but a raft seems to have taken up permanent residence at the harbor in Moss Landing.  It's the best place I know of  to see southern sea otters in the wild.  A kayak will put you right there in the water with them.  You're supposed to stay a specific distance away from all of the marine mammals there, but sometimes they decide to come to you and there's not much you can do about it except to enjoy the show.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun, image #2982.

Anise Swallowtail

Anise Swallowtail -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

I can stare at butterfly pictures for a long time.  They are nature's masterpieces.  I'm agnostic with a hard lean toward atheism, but if someone wanted to convince me the world was artistically conceived by some higher power and used the butterfly as their first argument I just might be swayed.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 137, image #9860.

Southern Sea Otters

Southern Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM, f/5.6, 1/1600s, ISO: 1250

More cuteness from this weekend.  Today it's otters.

Sea Lions

California Sea Lion -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon PowerShot SX40 HS

It wasn't all that long ago that sea lions had no presence at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.  One day they just showed up and took over a few docks and they've never left.  They've become yet another San Francisco tourist attraction.  The same thing happened here at Moss Landing, except for the tourist attraction part.  This picture is of a dock near the Highway 1 bridge taken a few years ago.  Today the dock is fenced off so the sea lions can't get on it.  I kind of miss them but they were definitely intimidating to paddle past on a kayak.  This new fencing reminds me of certain "No Loitering" signs I've seen posted in shopping malls to ward off teenagers.  Build a mall and teenagers will come.  Build a dock in a sheltered cove along the Pacific Coast and the sea lions will come.  Better to celebrate than complain in both cases, I'd say.

You can see one of the sea lions has something stuck around her neck.  Unfortunately that's a fairly common sight.

Photo selection inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 128, image #0067.

Otters

Southern Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 320

Hauled Out

Southern Sea Otter -- Moss Landing, CA

Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 800

Sea otters spend most of their time in the water, but they do haul out occasionally.  It's not uncommon to see one or two on the beaches of Moss Landing's harbor.  This guy was near the seals on the sand bar.  He was quite large, almost as big as some of the smaller adult seals.

This photo is cropped a lot, but it's still pretty clear.  Sometimes I get lucky.

Southern Sea Otter

Southern Sea Otter -- Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 3200

I don't know of a better place to see sea otters than at Moss Landing's harbor and the adjacent Elkhorn Slough.  This guy was near the shore in the slough.  He seemed to be just hanging out, occasionally diving for food, I presume.  The life of an otter seems pretty good in the slough.

Life Is Good

Harbor Seal -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS II, 1/2000s, f/5.6, ISO: 500

I wish I could sleep so peacefully.

Harbor Seals

Harbor Seal -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-6.5 IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 640

No doubt about it, seals sure are cute.

This is a shot from a kayaking excursion I took today at Moss Landing.  We paddled a ways up into Elkhorn Slough from the boat launch area.  These seals were on the sand bar across from the launch.  The passageway near the sand bar to the back of the harbor is extremely narrow when the tide is low, so we ended up a bit closer to these guys than normal (although we kept to the far side of the passage).  I think they must be used to boats going back and forth like that because they didn't seem particularly troubled.

Harbor Seals

Harbor Seal -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon EOS Rebel T5i, EF-S 55-250mm IS II, 1/1600s, f/5.6, ISO: 200

Elkhorn Slough is a great place for kayaking.  There's a lot of marine wildlife to see and getting out on the water puts one into their element.  Of course, a good distance has to be maintained away from the animals, still there's nothing like being in the same water with these seals, sea lions and sea otters.

On Being Fabulous

California Sea Lion -- Moss Landing, CA
Canon Power Shot SX40 HS, 1/320s, f/5, ISO: 200

Elkhorn Slough is a fantastic place to spend a day in a kayak.  The water is generally calm and although the tidal currents can be swift in my experience they are manageable.  The slough teems with wildlife, including sea otters, seals and sea lions.

From land, sea lions are loud and kind of funny.  They are a bit more intimidating from a small boat on the water.  They are big animals, with the males often weighing over eight hundred pounds.  Combine that size with their exuberance and you might be able to imagine why they don't seem quite so cute and cuddly from inside a ten foot long plastic boat.

I think of this as their "fabulous" pose.  Flaunt it if you've got it.

Inspired by Geogypsy's Foto Friday Fun 93, image #0072.