(Sumitted by: in the field reporter - Xavier Cohen)
6:00AM: alarm clock ring....no one woke up! It starts well. Quick shower, quick breakfast, and I am out. The sun is still sleepy and the cold temperature reminds me that we are still in winter. I jump on my bike ready to fight the cold and the 6 flat-miles to meet with other FM fellows. Since we love nature, we have decided to respect her: let's carpool! After one hour drive, the FM_NorCal south bay group (Larry H, Smada H, Alan M, Deepak L and I) arrived at the parking lot. @#$% we forgot our FM sign. Fortunately enough, the parking lot is almost empty...and other FM fellows (Margie R, Ed R and Allen H) are pretty easy to spot with their white Canon bazooka :-). Susan "our" docent is there as well already smiling...
8:45AM: The first group allowed in the park is us! We are rushing to the first spot in order to use the remaining clouds as the weather is forecasted to be gorgeous (which means "so so" for elephant seal photo op). After an overall view of our new "game area" from the top of the first dune, we stopped to see two young males sleeping calmly in the watershed. Suddenly one of them decided that sharing time was over: a fight starts just in front of us...No time to change lens, 400mm is too close...Even 200mm! Wahoo, the day promises to be more than just interesting! What a start! After finding our ways around their lying body (they are literally everywhere!), we ended up our first tour from the "Harem overlook". Not only Susan was consistently watching these guys around us, but she also pointed out good opportunities: mating, potential and real fights, strange behavior/tactics of losers trying to use any lack of vigilance from the alpha male. Without her comments, we would have lost half of what was going on in front of our eyes...I mean lenses. Too soon our allowed time was over. After a quick walk we were back on the parking lot to enjoy a quick lunch (our next tour was scheduled for
12:45).Great the happy FM Nor Cal group was complete again and we were able to run our second tour. Due to the heat behavior seems to have slowed down. While we were climbing the final butte to enjoy the "Harem overlook", we were treated to a fight and then a pursuit between an alpha bull and a loser! Both were heading in our direction! Susan did not have to ask us to get out of their way! Hopefully they stopped way before they reached us...good reminder. After a final session on top of the overlook, all of us were heading back happy from this shooting day. While we stopped on our way back to shoot some birds, pelicans decided to wait, since Ed had packed his gear, as they began to show up! At this moment, our outing turns into a pelican shot contest :-): they were going back and forth in front of us, perfectly side lighted. The day started well, it ended up as high as he began! Thanks Susan. Thanks Nelcha. You made our day!
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