Even though June is underway, many of the continually bickering females are still present and are sticking firmly to our local beaches much like last year at this time.
Click here for female photos.
If you look carefully, you might notice that some of these females sport brightly colored red, yellow, or green tail-flipper tags from the Channel Islands further down the coast indicating that these specific females were tagged as weaners in that area. ( The white tags indicate they were tagged here at the Piedras Blancas colony. )
These pregnant adult females are apparently in no rush to leave for their next session of feeding. Instead, they're choosing to mingle and squabble within the shore-based feminine masses. Amongst these females, quite a few of them are displaying beginning signs of eye infections as well as other sores or infections.
Mouth Cyst on Female
Another interesting aside is that these females are occupying pocket beaches that in the birthing/mating season are traditionally taken over by the males.
Young Male Opponents
Click here to see young males in action on land and in the water.
The few younger males that have so far dared to venture to our shores at this time of year have basically two choices if they don't want to face these rather ferocious females. They can remain bottling off-shore or find small beaches that are unoccupied where they can go about their youthful male activities such as mock-fighting.
Click here to see video displaying fancy male moves along with a great variety of vocalizations.
