A day at Ano Nuevo
Dec. 21st, 2005 08:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deborahjrossMy family and I spent most of the day at Ano Nuevo State Park, visiting the elephant seals. Our friends, the Weidners from San Francisco, organized it and so we packed up the van with all the rain gear we could lay our hands on and trundled north along the coast. Because the seals are giving birth and mating (and because the large males can weigh up to 5,000 lbs and move at 35 mph for short distances), all visitors must be under the careful eye of a docent, so we went out with a little group, including some people from Lyons (where I lived in 1991) and Morocco. We trundled through the dunes to the beach, passing isolated napping seals. These were nondominant (I forget the term the docent used) males, exiled from the main herd and the best napping places. It was so strange to see them stretched out among the bushes, since you think of seals on rocks or sand.
A boardwalk took us to a view point over one of the best beaches. I'm not good a numbers, but thought there were 30-40 there, including a pup only a few days old and several humongous males, who threw their heads back and made amazing sounds at each other. As we watched, even more arrived, swimming through the foaming surf. They are truly amazing creatures, once you get past the weird noses. They sleep without breathing on the ocean floor, and can dive well below the deepest submarines (I think the docent said 4,000 ft, but the numbers didn't mean anything to me). Their milk has been described as "mayonnaise in a straw," at its richest over 50% fat.
As we made way for the next group -- there were docented groups coming and going all day -- mist turned to rain. My "water-resistant" parka that I think was acquired in the 1970s was clearly no longer water-anything. Fortunately, it was a pretty warm day, in the '60s, so we got tired and hungry and wet, but not too cold. We crowded into the Weidners' van for a picnic lunch and I drove home in a downpour. Piles of wet clothes will be dealt with tomorrow!
A boardwalk took us to a view point over one of the best beaches. I'm not good a numbers, but thought there were 30-40 there, including a pup only a few days old and several humongous males, who threw their heads back and made amazing sounds at each other. As we watched, even more arrived, swimming through the foaming surf. They are truly amazing creatures, once you get past the weird noses. They sleep without breathing on the ocean floor, and can dive well below the deepest submarines (I think the docent said 4,000 ft, but the numbers didn't mean anything to me). Their milk has been described as "mayonnaise in a straw," at its richest over 50% fat.
As we made way for the next group -- there were docented groups coming and going all day -- mist turned to rain. My "water-resistant" parka that I think was acquired in the 1970s was clearly no longer water-anything. Fortunately, it was a pretty warm day, in the '60s, so we got tired and hungry and wet, but not too cold. We crowded into the Weidners' van for a picnic lunch and I drove home in a downpour. Piles of wet clothes will be dealt with tomorrow!
