Christine Heinrichs
@christineheinrichs.bsky.social
Enter the First Bull contest! Friends of the Elephant Seal holds a contest every year, to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season. mailchi.mp/elephantseal.org/firstbull2025. The winner gets an FES baseball cap, and praise from FES members and elephant seal admirers.
November 22, 2025 at 1:31 AM
Enter the First Bull contest! Friends of the Elephant Seal holds a contest every year, to guess when the first bull will arrive for the breeding season. mailchi.mp/elephantseal.org/firstbull2025. The winner gets an FES baseball cap, and praise from FES members and elephant seal admirers.
Female elephant seals on the beach now are not pregnant. They are skipping this season, for reasons not well understood. Maybe lost last year’s pregnancy. How will they get pregnant this year? I don’t see any mating going on. Alpha bulls have not yet arrived. Elephant Seal mysteries!
November 18, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Female elephant seals on the beach now are not pregnant. They are skipping this season, for reasons not well understood. Maybe lost last year’s pregnancy. How will they get pregnant this year? I don’t see any mating going on. Alpha bulls have not yet arrived. Elephant Seal mysteries!
Here’s this morning’s King Tide at Piedras Blancas. Sunny. The juvenile seals are okay with being tossed around in the surf. They have migrated at least once and are comfortable under water. Seal pups who will be born in December and January can’t swim, and may drown.
🦊 🦭#MarineMammal
🦊 🦭#MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Here’s this morning’s King Tide at Piedras Blancas. Sunny. The juvenile seals are okay with being tossed around in the surf. They have migrated at least once and are comfortable under water. Seal pups who will be born in December and January can’t swim, and may drown.
🦊 🦭#MarineMammal
🦊 🦭#MarineMammal
Beach panorama of extreme low tide at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, north beach.
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Beach panorama of extreme low tide at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, north beach.
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
🦭🦊 #MarineMammal
King Tide Thursday and Friday mornings, the highest tides of the year, full moon tonight. The afternoon brings the lowest tides. The north beach at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint expands to its widest. The seals are clumped together after the morning’s high water mark.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
November 6, 2025 at 2:09 AM
King Tide Thursday and Friday mornings, the highest tides of the year, full moon tonight. The afternoon brings the lowest tides. The north beach at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint expands to its widest. The seals are clumped together after the morning’s high water mark.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
This sweet young elephant seal, possibly a female, makes her way through the much larger males around her. Notice the cookie cutter shark wound on her side, and the scars on the larger males around she moves over. Cookie cutter sharks leave that distinctive circular wound.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
November 1, 2025 at 10:22 PM
This sweet young elephant seal, possibly a female, makes her way through the much larger males around her. Notice the cookie cutter shark wound on her side, and the scars on the larger males around she moves over. Cookie cutter sharks leave that distinctive circular wound.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
These young bulls decide on a three-way fight. Whiling away the afternoon at the beach.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
October 14, 2025 at 7:11 PM
These young bulls decide on a three-way fight. Whiling away the afternoon at the beach.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
October 5, 2025 at 10:19 AM
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
Thousands of pelicans and gulls joined the seals on the beach.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
September 27, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Thousands of pelicans and gulls joined the seals on the beach.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
Sharks’ public image evolves, over the 50 years since “Jaws.” White sharks are elephant seals major predator. This young seal arrived on the beach with shark teeth scars on his neck. He escaped with his head!🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
link.latimes.com/view/6529c8a...
link.latimes.com/view/6529c8a...
September 4, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Sharks’ public image evolves, over the 50 years since “Jaws.” White sharks are elephant seals major predator. This young seal arrived on the beach with shark teeth scars on his neck. He escaped with his head!🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
link.latimes.com/view/6529c8a...
link.latimes.com/view/6529c8a...
Two young male elephant seals surf into the beach for the fall haulout. Juvenile seals, those not yet in the breeding population, take a few weeks test on the beach between September and November. The last mature bull left the beach at Piedras Blancas yesterday.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
September 1, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Two young male elephant seals surf into the beach for the fall haulout. Juvenile seals, those not yet in the breeding population, take a few weeks test on the beach between September and November. The last mature bull left the beach at Piedras Blancas yesterday.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
🦊🦭#MarineMammal
These two young males, about six years old judging from the development of their noses, tussle until they annoy their mature cousin. The bull moves on to rest in the lagoon. From Arroyo del Corral, north of Piedras Blancas.
August 30, 2025 at 6:38 PM
These two young males, about six years old judging from the development of their noses, tussle until they annoy their mature cousin. The bull moves on to rest in the lagoon. From Arroyo del Corral, north of Piedras Blancas.
Terns among the gulls at Piedras Blancas this morning. We were there for a Marine Mammal Center release of two rehabilitated sea lions who had recovered from leptospirosis. They were happy to get back in the ocean!
August 30, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Terns among the gulls at Piedras Blancas this morning. We were there for a Marine Mammal Center release of two rehabilitated sea lions who had recovered from leptospirosis. They were happy to get back in the ocean!
Lazy days of summer! Beach action high points are raising a front flipper to cool off, stretching back flippers, and tossing sand.
One bull still has his brown skin and fur. All the rest have molted to gray. The gray color will turn brown as the hairs grow out and stand up.
🦊🦭
#MarineMammals
One bull still has his brown skin and fur. All the rest have molted to gray. The gray color will turn brown as the hairs grow out and stand up.
🦊🦭
#MarineMammals
August 17, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Lazy days of summer! Beach action high points are raising a front flipper to cool off, stretching back flippers, and tossing sand.
One bull still has his brown skin and fur. All the rest have molted to gray. The gray color will turn brown as the hairs grow out and stand up.
🦊🦭
#MarineMammals
One bull still has his brown skin and fur. All the rest have molted to gray. The gray color will turn brown as the hairs grow out and stand up.
🦊🦭
#MarineMammals
Tracking devices follow elephant seals, but are also small enough to attach even to small birds and bats. Studies find bats migrating to Mexico and back, then to Las Vegas and back.
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭
August 15, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Tracking devices follow elephant seals, but are also small enough to attach even to small birds and bats. Studies find bats migrating to Mexico and back, then to Las Vegas and back.
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭
www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/e...
🦊🦭
This young elephant seal, probably one of last breeding season’s pups, follows a bull up the beach. The others are staying cool at the water’s edge. Raised flippers help them cool off. At the end, a bull out of the picture vocalizes. He stayed in the water, seen and heard. 🦊🦭#MarineMammals
August 9, 2025 at 5:09 AM
This young elephant seal, probably one of last breeding season’s pups, follows a bull up the beach. The others are staying cool at the water’s edge. Raised flippers help them cool off. At the end, a bull out of the picture vocalizes. He stayed in the water, seen and heard. 🦊🦭#MarineMammals
Northern elephant seals are one of the 36 species of marine mammals that live in or migrate though Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary waters. It's the Serengeti of the Sea.
Recognize whales by their spouts, and their flukes, as they make that dive from the surface. 🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
Recognize whales by their spouts, and their flukes, as they make that dive from the surface. 🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
August 4, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Northern elephant seals are one of the 36 species of marine mammals that live in or migrate though Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary waters. It's the Serengeti of the Sea.
Recognize whales by their spouts, and their flukes, as they make that dive from the surface. 🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
Recognize whales by their spouts, and their flukes, as they make that dive from the surface. 🦊🦭 #MarineMammals
Tsunami! West Coast under watch. Probably won't affect the big bull elephant seals on the beach, but in 2022, a tsunami tossed a newborn pup into the rocks. He eventually made his way back to the beach, reunited with his frantic mother. 🦊🦭#MarineMammals
July 30, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Tsunami! West Coast under watch. Probably won't affect the big bull elephant seals on the beach, but in 2022, a tsunami tossed a newborn pup into the rocks. He eventually made his way back to the beach, reunited with his frantic mother. 🦊🦭#MarineMammals
It's always Shark Week in Cambria! Many elephant seals bear scars from whate shark encounters. The scars are on the ones who survived, and lived to tell the tale! This one nearly got her head bitten off. You can see every tooth.
The scars speak to the remarkable recuperative powers of the seals.
The scars speak to the remarkable recuperative powers of the seals.
July 23, 2025 at 9:19 PM
It's always Shark Week in Cambria! Many elephant seals bear scars from whate shark encounters. The scars are on the ones who survived, and lived to tell the tale! This one nearly got her head bitten off. You can see every tooth.
The scars speak to the remarkable recuperative powers of the seals.
The scars speak to the remarkable recuperative powers of the seals.
Piedras Blancas Light Station offers its annual Hike-In Open House on 4 Wednesdays, July 9, 23, and August 13 and 27. PBLS, a Bureau of Land Management Outstanding Natural Area, California Coastal National Monument, asks for $5 donation. Priceless.
www.blm.gov/programs/nat...
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
www.blm.gov/programs/nat...
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
July 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Piedras Blancas Light Station offers its annual Hike-In Open House on 4 Wednesdays, July 9, 23, and August 13 and 27. PBLS, a Bureau of Land Management Outstanding Natural Area, California Coastal National Monument, asks for $5 donation. Priceless.
www.blm.gov/programs/nat...
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
www.blm.gov/programs/nat...
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
From San Luis Obispo, Blues vs Santa Barbara Foresters
July 11, 2025 at 1:15 AM
From San Luis Obispo, Blues vs Santa Barbara Foresters
These young bulls are mixing it up on a holiday weekend.
July 8, 2025 at 7:09 PM
These young bulls are mixing it up on a holiday weekend.
This five-year-old finds his way to an open place on the beach, while the older bulls ignore him and toss sand on their backs. The sand is full of bits of shed skin. The ground squirrels eat some of it.
June 30, 2025 at 11:09 PM
This five-year-old finds his way to an open place on the beach, while the older bulls ignore him and toss sand on their backs. The sand is full of bits of shed skin. The ground squirrels eat some of it.
Hefty bulls take over the beach during the summer months, to molt their skin. Unusual scars attest to the dangers of seal life in the open sea. Cookie cutter shark scars, not fatal, are common. I comfort myself with the thought that blubber doesn’t have many nerve endings.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
June 27, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Hefty bulls take over the beach during the summer months, to molt their skin. Unusual scars attest to the dangers of seal life in the open sea. Cookie cutter shark scars, not fatal, are common. I comfort myself with the thought that blubber doesn’t have many nerve endings.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal
This bull looked back at visitors to the Piedras Blancas viewpoint yesterday. His long nose indicates he's a senior bull. When he lies down, you can see his pink chest shield, another indicator. His skin has started molting. The young seals around him are mostly molted.
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
June 16, 2025 at 5:13 PM
This bull looked back at visitors to the Piedras Blancas viewpoint yesterday. His long nose indicates he's a senior bull. When he lies down, you can see his pink chest shield, another indicator. His skin has started molting. The young seals around him are mostly molted.
🦊🦭#MarineMammals
🦊🦭#MarineMammals