Thirty Years Later: Daytrip to the coast, part 6

Yesterday I was telling you that the seagulls were fishing for dinner, and that we were just starting to realize that there was a raft of sea lions sunning on the sand across the river from us.

Can you see them over there?

Note: When sea lions are out of the water, a group of them is called a Raft. When they are in the water, they are a Colony. I learned this when we were looking at the on the docks in Newport earlier in the day, but was amused at how confusing this can be. There was a colony of sea lions in the water circling the raft of sea lions on the floating docks...which some might refer to as tethered rafts. So, one might say there was a raft of sea lions on the raft.

Sigh. That makes my head spin.

D and I decided to watch the birds to figure out where the sea lions were. This was a great deduction, and we were surprised by where they went.

The birds flocked to an area not far from where we were standing.

As they flew toward the ocean, we saw some dark dots in the water. Sea lions!

There were so many! In this picture we count at least 19. Number 20 could be a sea lion or a shadow on a wave. But still, there were at least 19 visible above water this close to shore. D pointed out there may have been several more underwater that didn't make it into this picture.

This lady was walking her dog along the waterline when a sea lion surprised her. She picked up the pace to get her dog away from there. I'm not sure if her dog would have wanted to jump into the water to say hello, or if a sea lion might have come to shore to see if the dog might make for an interesting dinner.

D went down to the water to see if he could get a picture close up. He and I disagree about how close he was to them, but nevertheless, he was very close. How cool!

I'd say this was the most exciting part of the day, getting a sea lion surprise on this beautiful beach.

Come back tomorrow to see some more pictures of our evening in Taft. We saw a Crocodile Rock, a driftwood tent, and a neat fossil.

by P