Not hardly - he's probably trying to knock up every female he can find on the beach. It is a boisterous fun time along California's famous Highway 1 coastal highway. Piedras Blancas is a roadside stop not to be missed to view the Northern Elephant Seal in its various "seasons".

Tags:   Mirounga angustirostris Northern Elephant Seal Piedras Blancas breeding breeding adult elephant seal mating seal wildlife

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The Elephant Seal rookery along the California Central Coast at Piedras Blancas makes for easy viewing of these humongous seals. A piece from the web about them: "February is a very exciting month for the elephant seals. Final birthing is going on, pups are being weaned and mating is underway. The beach is typically crowded with dominant bulls guarding their harems of females and pups, and the peak of mating tends to be around Valentine's Day." And that's the way it was this early day in February - lots and lots of activity. This one, clearly a male involved with the much smaller female, just cracked me up. I hope it does the same for you. And, by the way, zero crop on this image. Feel free to view him, especially, LARGE for the full goofy effect.

Tags:   Northern Elephant Seal Piedras Blancas breeding breeding adult elephant seal mating rookery seal wildlife

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Besides making a lot of noise on the beach during the jousting and vocal sessions, this would seem to be the other activity for our elephant seals - throwing sand.

Tags:   Piedras Blancas elephant seal seal wildlife San Simeon California United States US

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We visited Piedras Blancas, a popular elephant seal rookery along the California Coast. It was peak molting season for the women and juveniles. I'm guessing the one on the left is indeed a young male just showing signs of the huge male proboscis or snout. The males follow in June and July for their molting time. While the seals spend most of their lives at sea, they need the beach time to stay warm while replacing the skin... and evidently to practice tuning their vocal chords.

Tags:   Piedras Blancas arguing argument discussion elephant seal jousting rookery seal wildlife San Simeon California United States US molt molting

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There is an easily accessible place along California's rugged Central Coast where you can find a Northern Elephant Seal rookery, known as Piedras Blancas for the point bearing its name. There's something going on there all year long - September-October is the time for young-of-the-year and juveniles to arrive for the fall haul-out. So the beach was covered with youngsters jousting, throwing sand, belching, snorting, and just plain being vocal. As many times as I've driven Highway 1, I always get here in the afternoon, so the animals are generally harshly backlit. This morning, I was heading home from Monterey, early, and I thought "cool, I'll finally have some morning light to work with." Turned out it was very overcast too, which was OK, such a nice welcome change for me. Anyway, I photographed them for a couple of hours, and this was one of the first images. Check it large - using that new prime lens.

Tags:   Mirounga angustirostris Northern Elephant Seal Piedras Blancas Young-of-the-year elephant seal jousting juvenile rookery seal wildlife San Simeon California United States of America

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