Point Lobos: Cormorant Carcas, Black Oyster Catcher and Southern Sea Otters

November 2011: Point Lobos, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

Our visit started with a blast: a couple of southern sea otters (enhydra lutris nereis) were soaking by the rocky shore in whaler cove. One of them looked very content and calm. Another (a little smaller) was incredibly playful and moving extremely fast: washing his face, scrubbing his back, checking out armpits, splashing water onto paws and chest, wiggling his tail, swimming around and jumping over his calm buddy. I think it was mother and son - based on my personal experience :)

Nearby a very bright-beaked oyster catcher was working on a clam: sliding it between rocks, then hitting it hard and eating his prize piece-by-piece.

I am partial to cormorants since I saw one under water. We saw many that day - but this one was, sadly, dead and dry.

Point Lobos, California - Gay Kraeger

Christina Lopp and I teach a class in keeping an illustrated journal every year at Asilomar near Monterey California. It is a beautiful place to teach a class. Normally I don't have time to work in my journal because I am teaching, but this year we had a half day to go out and draw in public somewhere nearby. I managed to convince a couple of students from San Diego that they needed to see Point Lobos. It says on the brochure that it is the "greatest meeting of land and water in the world" I don't know about that but it is pretty spectacular. It was even more spectacular because of the ten to twenty foot waves that were cascading over the Point Lobos rocks.