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

Beach panorama of extreme low tide at the Piedras Blancas elephant seal viewpoint, north beach.
🦭🦊 #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

These young bulls decide on a three-way fight. Whiling away the afternoon at the beach.
🦊🦭#MarineMammal

Thousands of pelicans and gulls joined the seals on the beach.
🦊🦭 #MarineMammal

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

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.

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

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

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.