I’m absolutely terrible at identifying gull species so I won’t try, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy photographing them.

This adult harbor seal decided to start his morning early and not wait for the incoming tide to reach his high perch. He shuffled off his sunny spot, down past the mussel beds and into the shadows at the water’s edge.

This young seal was at the bottom of the pecking order when it came to places to perch and rest, occupying the first place to get covered by the sea as the tide rolled in. This particular wave, though, didn’t dislodge the little one and it was able to hold its position until the rock was submerged.

When I was growing up we had our own bottom rung: the dreaded middle seat in the station wagon, the one with the big transmission hump in the floor where your legs should have been.

The young seal displays fine form as it shows how to let the waves wash right over you, with rings of water rolling past its belly.

I’m not a morning person so I was pretty impressed with myself when I woke up early enough to be at Yaquina Head at sunrise. When I got down to the beach, though, some of the harbor seals were already out swimming around in the surf, making my early rising not quite so impressive. Because of the high cliffs, the rising sun hadn’t yet lit up the waters where this seal was swimming.

On a trip to the coast back in 2005, I arrived at Yaquina Head at dawn and walked down the steps to the beach to photograph harbor seals in the surf. I took a quick shot of the lighthouse with the subtle colors of the northern sky but unfortunately underexposed it severely. I corrected for it in post-processing but the resulting noise mars the subtle details in the scene.

When I’m in the moment, I’ve never been that great at remembering the technical side of photography, and have made only small steps forward as the years progress. It didn’t help that I was then shooting with the Canon 10D, which doesn’t let you check the results of the image you just shot while there are images still in the buffer.

I got the Canon 20D shortly after this trip, which is properly double-buffered and allows a quick review, it’s a shame I didn’t purchase it just a little bit sooner. Nevertheless, there’s an old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you, and I’d much rather have these shots, imperfect as they are, then not have them at all.

Thick layers of blubber can make even a rock a comfortable place to sleep, but it can get a little dramatic when the tide comes in, so it helps to be a sound sleeper that isn’t easily distracted by the sight and sound of crashing waves. This adult slept unperturbed in the warmth of the rising sun until the rising tide forced even it into the ocean.

Good morning Boolie!

An adult harbor seal lets out a big yawn on an early morning in March 2005. He had a fairly choice perch, off by himself but elevated above many of the other rocks. He was able to sun himself longer than the younger seals several feet below him who had to yield their spots to the incoming tide.

After watching me from closer in, this harbor seal popped up further off in the gentle waves before finally swimming out of sight.

This young seal was swimming in the shallow waters at my favorite place to watch seals on the Oregon Coast, Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area in Newport, Oregon. The seals swim in close to shore as they frolic in the surf, with their curious nature they’ll watch you as you watch them. It’s a difficult place to shoot on a sunny evening, with the setting sun before you, so on this day I arrived at sunrise.

These pictures were taken moments apart, shortly after the sun first rose above the high cliff walls, most of the other areas around the beach were still in shadow. Seals are mammals of course and have to surface to breathe. In the first picture you can see the seal’s nostrils flared open as it breathes in, in the second they’ve closed down as it prepares to dive back under the water.

Which it did, right after I took the picture.

Birds have evolved different strategies to solve the same problem. Oystercatchers have a long thin bill dedicated to cracking open shellfish and extracting the flesh inside. Gulls have a varied diet (to put it mildly) and so have more general purpose bills. That didn’t deter this gull, however, from trying for a mussel meal. It would hold the shell in its mouth, fly up high, then drop the mussel onto the agate beach to get the shell to crack open. Mussels must have a pretty tough shell as the gull never managed to crack it despite several attempts.

Pity the starfish that does not take advantage of the cover of high tide to relieve itself. This poor fellow clinging to a large boulder was left high-and-dry by the receding tide and could do naught but cross its legs and hold it in. Waiting for the inevitable return of the sea but tortured always by the sound of splashing water …

I often like to photograph harbor seals at Yaquina Head in the warm hues of the early morning light, but on this day nature gave me a nearly monochrome look that I like as well. It may look like a black-and-white image but it is not, although I may yet play around with a B&W conversion to see which I prefer.

This young pelican is probably laying over at Yaquina Head for the first time but by now, like the many other juveniles in the flock, it was soaring with the best of them, its youth betrayed only by its coloration.

Taken in the middle of October 2005 while a large flock of pelicans had stopped in at the Head for a few weeks, zooming about the large sea stacks and the lighthouse.

A bunch of purple sea urchins have carved out holes for themselves in the floor of a tide pool at Yaquina Head. I’m fascinated how a seemingly immobile creature that looks like a prickly cat toy could do such a thing, something I could never do, and yet they can’t remove the driftwood that the tide drops over them.

Give urchins opposable thumbs and they’d probably conquer the world.

I was editing some pictures of brown pelicans that I took on the Oregon coast last fall when Scout jumped onto my desk. Nothing unusual there. But then she took a great deal of interest in what was on my computer screen, which was showing an adult pelican soaring through the air. Before I realized what was going on, she took a swipe at the bird.

Bad Scout! Bad Scout!

My old CRT had a big scratch in it thanks to my little kitten and I didn’t want the same with my LCD. Fortunately she kept her claws retracted and no damage was done. She was eyeing the pelicans later in the day but made no further attempts to attack the digital birds.

Remind me never to take Scout to the coast.

Templeton goes to the vet tomorrow, he’s been sleeping all the time and not eating and drinking as much as he used to. I wasn’t too concerned when we first brought him home but he should have bounced back by now. He doesn’t seem to be in any pain and is as sweet and loving as usual, but he’s lost weight and just sleeps constantly.