A breezy couple of days with seals

My pal had warned me that the ocean was wavy down south, so I went to swim, prepared for bad vis and pushing waves. Because of this, I waited until the sun was well up before I got in: into the Kiddie Pond.

Since there were no other people in the water, and because the tide was rising, I didn't choose to visit the Big Pond.  When the tide is rising, sometimes the current can move you where you might not want to go, i.e., downstream to one of the hotels!

But I am glad I swam yesterday, since there were seals and a flounder. A cute little one, no bigger than my hand:

I'm glad they have the pattern that they do: otherwise, I'd never be able to sort them out from the sand.

AWWWW.  These two seals were frolicking.
And yesterday, there were another two; I erroneously thought they were Mom and baby.  I'm told that the mom leaves the baby at 8 weeks. When a baby shows up on the beach, they close the beach, so that no one is disturbed!  Apparently, if irritated, the Mom will leave the baby and not come back.

With the duo below, I at first thought, seeing from the other side: Why are the fins at both ends of that seal?!  Of course, it was because the 2nd one, being smaller, couldn't be seen until I got a different angle.  I did think that was a baby, but was later told it was two males, frolicking and then sleeping.  I have been having some internet trouble, but if it doesn't take forever, I'll upload the movie...there are grunts and throat clearing noises.  Pretty funny because the smaller one looks up, like: Hey Shut UP!  I'm trying to catch some zzzzs here!

Sorry to be mixing up the days.  This little guy appeared, at first making me think a piece of seaweed was floating toward me.  But it was a tiny Sergeant Major fish:

Doesn't it remind you of Finding Nemo?  The little guy must have thought I was a refuge, because it stayed with me, about 6 inches away for a few minutes.  So cute.

Sorry, buddy! I'm not a floating raft of seaweed where you can hide!







Since I'm jumping all around anyway, here's a real smiley cloud. I had to run for the camera when I saw it:

Isn't that odd?

Not sure if you can see the 3 little Cornet Fishes...one is bending.  They are silvery in color and are about the width around as a skinny pencil. Very cute.  I often find youngsters in the sandy area near the beach.







And from Saturday, God's Rays:

And from yesterday, a crab hiding in a white shell.  It seems way too big for him/her!

I am constantly amazed at what is in shells.  I rarely see the original animal.

Palms for my sweetheart:

















And also for him, the lizard fish, hiding quite well.  After this shot, it flew off and then buried itself in the sand.  I couldn't keep track of it after that.

You can see just the head and the tail part.

We also had 6 beach baptisms!  What a great thing that was.   A bit wavy, but still great.  And since 4 were kids, I won't put in their pix, but they were all smiles.

Sunrise at the beach.  I like how the closer palm tree seems so ginormous!






I did find two octopuses yesterday, so that was a thrill.  One was hiding in a heart shaped hole in the bottom.



And seals.  It was so cute, how they touched each other with a flipper....just joshing around:

It's also neat that they sleep head to "toe"...

And here's the movie: Enjoy! Apparently, it's too big for blogger.  I'll try through youtube.  Check back at youtube...ask for octopigirl7 in a few.