Saturday Visit to the E-Seals

I haven't visited the elephant seals in quite awhile.  We started out with lunch in Cayucos at the Sea Shanty and an attempt to check out the seaglass festival.  Unfortunately, there was a very long line just waiting to get into the Veterans Hall where the festival was held, so I just kept driving north past Cambria and San Simeon until I arrived at the beach the elephant seals have claimed as their own.  According to the little newsletter, the adults are leaving the beach and there are mostly weaned pups, who need to teach themselves how to swim left.  I think they preferred napping to swimming lessons though.  Or maybe they were just really tired after swimming all morning?

 The young ones always seem to have a smile.

Obviously, this big guy didn't get the message to take off.  

About a mile north of the e-seal beach is the Piedras Blancas Lighthouse.  It's presently undergoing restoration, and tours are offered.  That's on my "to-do" list.

And lastly, my attempt at an "arty" shot of dried foilage.

For the Birds

I've taken a little break from blogging for the last couple of months just because I needed a break - lots going on.  We have our house up for sale, and we spent a lot of time cleaning, patching, staging the house.  And of course I need to keep it in tip-top shape all the time in case we have a showing.  Plus, I just felt so sad after our sweet cat, Casey, passed away.  Kind of in a funk.  Just haven't wanted to take photos.  But I thought I would get back in the saddle, so to speak, so I've posted a couple of bird shots I have taken the last day or so. 

There has a been a small hawk hanging around for awhile - this morning he got especially close to the house so I was able to get some nice photos of him while he was perched on a bush outside Tom's office. 

Then the roadrunner showed up while we were having lunch yesterday.  Haven't seen him for several months. 

And of course there are always finches and sparrows around eating from our feeders. 

We usually have a couple of hummingbirds that winter over (this year I've had to melt their sugar water many mornings, as we've had particularly cold nights this winter).  This guy, however, is a new one - I think he's an Allen's hummingbird and from the information from my birdbook, they are the earliest species to migrate. 

Another shot of the hawk - we have red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks around here, but he doesn't really look like them, and is smaller.  He could be an immature hawk, though.  Or maybe a Cooper's?  If anyone out there can identify him/her, let me know.