Active Sloat Day

Drove down to Pismo Beach today. It was absolutely awesome weather...warm and sunny, top down all the way! Naturally, I had to stop and visit the elephant sloats at Point Piedras Blancas. It...was...80 (eighty) degrees at the sloat viewpoint!! Those of you who know the local climate realize how incredible that is. The temperature at this point reaches 80 maybe twice a year if you're lucky...and NEVER in July or August. It's almost always cold and foggy here, or sunny, windy, and cold. But it was virtually hot today, with a strong offshore wind. The elephant sloats appeared oblivious to the heat...they were soakin' up the rays.

Pups have been born...there are hundreds of them on the beach. So it's time for the bull sloats to begin competing to see who will hang with the sheila sloats and sire the next crop of keikis for 2010. Here a couple of bulls are posturing, squaring off for a grapple.

The bloke sloat in the middle of the pic has gotten his opponent down on the sand; bit him a couple of times too, and jumped on top of him, which had to hurt...these guys weigh up to 3 tons! Right after this pic was shot the loser hightailed it off the sand into the ocean, later reappearing farther down the beach, bloody and a bit bedraggled. The sloat in the background near the water line was not involved in the fracas.

On another section of the beach, a bunch of seagulls were hanging out. A mama sloat had just given birth...unfortunately I didn't see that...and when she ejected the placenta several dozen gulls instantly swarmed on it and started playing tug of war with the bloody scraps. Apparently the afterbirth is a delicacy among seagulls. Different tastes for different species, I reckon! I prefer spaghetti and meatballs myself. Blow the pic up for a better view of the chaos.