At The Backroads

San Diego Bay from Hornblower Cruise, Thursday, Jan 8 2009

Last Thursday was my birthday, and since I am still on vacation, I told myself I will give myself a birthday treat by hopping in a boat to the middle of the sea and celebrate birthday with the wildlife in the ocean . I bought my whale watching ticket through Goldstar, which is only a total of $19.50 compared to $30.00 regular price. However, when Thursday came, it was overcast! I was thinking of not going anymore since I won’t be able to take good pictures because of poor visibility. But then, as I already had promised myself to enjoy that day no matter what and that was how I wanted to enjoy the day, I jumped in the whale watching cruise still. And here was my birthday party :))

My Birthday Guests ( hahahaha, I’d like to think that way, poor me )

Greeter Number 1

Greeter Number 2

Greeter Number 3 and 4

Greeter Number 5 and 6

Actually, there were still a lot of other greeters, however, the pictures did not come out good at all with all the haze from the marine layer. Sometimes, we got lucky to be on a fogless spot, maybe like this one where we can see clearly the Hotel del Coronado

Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado Bridge

But a lot of the times, it was like this

Abandoned Deck, @ 3 pm in the afternoon

It is not that there were not other people on the boat, there were a lot! At first, the tour started with almost everyone outside, having a merry time, then, with the very chilly breeze blowing, despite having warm jackets, after an hour, slowly the people were moving inside seeking the comfort of an indoor seating! But it was fun, despite the gloomy weather. I had fun watching the dolphins watch the whales. it is easier to look for the whales since usually the dolphins would come circling around them.

Dolphin and Whale

Though the picture may look like it is the whale following the dolphin, but actually, the dolphins were kind of moving around the whale and when I caught this picture, the dolphin was in front of the whale. Dolphins are very curious and intelligent marine mammals, they love to observe what is going around the whale as much as men study the behavior of the whales too. In fact, some dolphins and sea lions are trained by the US Navy for military intelligence. If we have police dogs on land, we have the the navy sea lions and dolphins in water. We also saw the military carrier which shoot down the defective spy satellite last year to prevent it from hitting the populated part of the Earth.

Military Carrier that Shoot Down the Defective Spy Satellite

Whale watching is not only fun but also educational, I think it’s not only the kids who light up with excitement when they see jumping whales and dolphins, but adults too. How many whales do you think are in this picture? Is this only one whale or two?

Gray whales are most frequently seen off San Diego from December to March as they trek from the frigid arctic waters to the warm water lagoons of Baja, California, where females give birth to their calves. Each year, about 26,000 whales would make the 10,000 mile journey from Arctic to Baja and back.

Gray Whale’s Tail

From the gray whale, bye for now

Gray Whale’s Tail

Until the next post, hope you enjoyed this gloomy whale watching trip. Though a gloomy day, but I had a happy birthday

La Jolla Cove 

We went last weekend to La Jolla Cove, hoping to photograph the breeding color of the pelicans which can be observed at winter. We usually watch for the pelicans by the cliffs below La Jolla Coast Walk, or below the Sunny Jim Cave entrance.

Viewing Cliff for Pelicans

 However, when we got to the cliff, there were not a lot of pelicans . I mean, there were several pelicans on the bluffs, but not a lot of them showing off their red bill pouch. I did not get lucky enough to take one picture of a pelican with the red bill pouch or with their breeding colors. It seemed they did not cooperate with me in showing off their gular pouch :).

California Brown Pelican

 Winter is the breeding season of the brown pelicans, and during this time, their bill pouch turn a bright red. Since I did not feel lucky at all photographing the pelicans that day, I instead took some pictures of the noisy sea lions below the bluffs.

Brown Pelicans and Sea Lions

Sea Lions 

 The most common marine mammals in California Coast are sea lions and harbor seals.

Harbor Seals 

They are both pinniped with fur, flippers and with fat bodies. However, two of the very obvious differences between the two are the ear flaps and the noise. The sea lions have ear flaps while harbor seals don’t have. When harbor seals rest quietly on shore, the sea lions can be very noisy, they utter a dog-like bark . Also, seals have smaller front flippes compared to sea lions, so when seals walk, they flop around their bellies When sea lions can be assertive around humans compared to seals which are more timid.  Also, if sea lions have mostly brown coat, the seals have spotted coats. 

And at winter, is the time for sea lions, seals and pelicans to breed. It is the best time to watch their unusual behavior and color. It is also the time where most of them are on shore.

 And when sea lions mate, I pity the female, looks like they are hurting them, biting them into submission ( see picture).