Some Random California Photos-Animals Mostly

 Hi everyone. I hope your weekend is going well, and that the sun is shining for you. Yesterday it rained and was once again cloudy here in New Hampshire, but today the sun is coming back. And it is suppose to be a bit warmer this week ahead too. I think a few longs walks outside will need to be put on the agenda. 

I'm taking an art break today and thought I would share some random photos from my California trip. Today's theme is mostly animals.

Our day trip to Channel Islands National Park was a banner photo day for me, so here's some birds and animals we spotted, starting with these pelicans. (I think they are all brown pelicans.)

I've never seen so many pelicans all together at once.

And these California sea lions (Zalophus californianus)  found a good place to take a morning nap in the sun.

If you didn't know, sea lions have external ears (well really an external ear flap) and seals do not. They both have internal ears like we do, although we obviously have an external ear "flap" (called the pinna).  

You can clearly see the ears here on a couple of these sea lions in this first photo.

We saw a few of other sea lions. Some were in swimming, and one guy was lounging back on a dock in the harbor before we even left for Santa Cruz island.

I also liked these raven silhouette photos I took on the island too. 

And there were even more pelicans when we returned  to shore in the evening.

And while driving north along the coast

we came to an elephant seal beach. These are northern elephant seals (M. angustirostris).

I've only seen these creatures in films, and it was pretty exciting to come across a whole beach of them. This is one place where they come onto the shore to breed. Not that they were breeding when we were there.

It was more like afternoon nap time. 

They reminded me of Maddie taking her afternoon nap. Smile.

For those unfamiliar with elephant seals, the big ones are males. They are much larger than the females. They also have a rather bulbous snout and nose, especially the males.

Occasionally one got up and rearranged themselves or relocated while we were there. 

But mostly they were snoozing and enjoying the sun.

We saw a few flip some sand on themselves to stay cool. Elephant seals spend most of their life in the water, not on the beach.

And finally, my husband and I each picked one thing we really wanted to do when we were in Los Angeles. We originally had planned on traveling for a few more days than we ended up actually being gone. Thanks to my chronic hives and my allergist thinking I had better stay on shots every 2 weeks, we cut a few days off our trip.

My pick was the La Brea tar pits. (And I am ignoring the Google note that once again tells me I spelled bear wrong-smile). Here's a few shots, but I can show more if people are interested.

A reconstructed model of a saber tooth cat.

And my husband next to a model of a giant prehistoric bear. I wouldn't want one of these at my bird feeder.

The museum was really fascinating. If we'd had more time I would have also visited the Natural History Museum. And a few other places too. I guess that  means we need to plan another trip to LA sometime in the future.

They'd pulled mammoth and mastodon skeletons from the tar pits.

As well as giant sloths too. 

And very large wolves called dire wolves.

Here's some of the wolf skulls they removed from some of the pits. You can also see my husband.

And finally a little  tar pit (which was behind a fence).  It was a fascinating place to visit.

Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed the photos,  and enjoy what's left to your weekend also.