Whales, Eagles and Idiots

Hi All,

Another wonderful day on the Oregon coast. Morning rain and a 60% rain forecast set our expectations for the day pretty low. However, when we arrived at Heceta the sky was brightening and soon we had sun and Carl was in short sleeves.

Then the whales came, a gray whale mother and calf swam about a half mile away. They remained in the same general area for almost two hours, probably feeding and many visitors got to see the whales in the spotting scopes. 

The murre colony was mostly in the water, frightened by frequent overflights by turkey vultures (no threat to the birds but the murres are not quite sure these big brown birds are not eagles). Around mid day an immature bald eagle attacked the colony and flew off with a murre. Less than 30 minutes later another ( or possibly the same) eagle struck again, carrying off another bird. We watched as the gulls swooped in and stole the unprotected eggs of the murres that fled the eagle attack. It is sad to watch but, of course, the eagles and gulls must eat as well.

The most interesting visitor of the day was a teacher from western MD who is spending his summer hiking---from the Columbia River in northern Oregon to San Francisco, a total distance of over 800 miles!!

Now about the idiots. The sea lions haul out on rock ledges generally inaccessible to land predators and humans. Today we saw three teenage boys climb down the steep cliff face and scare six sea lions into the water. Not only is this illegal, it is very dangerous since the male Steller sea lions (up to 2,200 pounds) are gathering breeding harems this time if year and not fond of interruptions. We reported the incident but the boys were probably long gone when the police arrived.

Love
Sandy & Carl

Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone

Sent from my iPhone