Back in California!

Every once in a while you get really, really lucky. Sunday was one of those days.

I'd been back in Utah for just a few weeks when I received an invitation to return to LA for a workshop. I'd already begun to experience ocean withdrawal, so I decided to fly out a day early and search for blue whales. Blue whales are not only the largest whales in the world, but also the largest animals of any kind that have ever lived. In the last few years, blue whales have been visiting southern Calfornia waters from roughly August through October, unfortunately right after I had to leave CA. [Aside: I think I actually did spot a blue whale before I left CA, but I'll leave that story for another blog post.] The invitation to return to LA in September presented a welcome opportunity to try to see them!

So, this past Sunday I once again drove to my beloved Palos Verdes whale watching site with my trusty binoculars in tow, albeit this time in a rental car.

I didn't see any blue whales. Not one. But in a surprising turn of events, 4 humpback whales decided to spend the day feeding in the waters off Palos Verdes, right in front of the whale watching station! They were there when I arrived at 1:00pm and they were still there when I left at 6:30pm. Humpback whales are known to live in California waters, but as far as I know, there isn't much regularity as to when and where they will show up. You just have to get lucky to see them.

My first key sighting of the day wasn't a whale, but a boat. During the past year, I learned to recognize many telltale signs of whale activity, including water spouts ("blows"), the sun sparkling off whale backs, and the presence of whale watching boats! Almost immediately after I arrived, I identified what I thought was a whale watching boat and noticed that, curiously, it wasn't moving. Had they spotted something? All the passengers were standing on one side of the boat, so I stared intently at the water on that side and, sure enough, I soon saw some blows. Several experienced whale observers also happened to be at Palos Verdes this day, and they identified the whales as 2 humpbacks, probably a cow/calf pair. A short while later, we noticed blows coming from the opposite side of the ocean as well, which turned out to be a second pair of humpacks. For the entire afternoon, the ocean was alive with whale spouts, sometimes from the pair of humpacks toward the south, and sometimes from the pair of humpbacks toward the north. I could frequently see their backs when they dove down to feed, and I got one good look at a fluke!

Being a terrestrial species, I tend to think of the ocean as a 2-dimensional space, but of course it is 3-dimensional. There are trenches and canyons along the ocean floor where sea life changes dramatically (e.g., the Redondo Canyon). On this day, I learned that knowledge of the ocean's topology can also be valuable clues for whale watchers. The whale observers informed me that the humpbacks were diving along "trench lines" in the ocean, which are locations where both humpbacks and blue whales can frequently be seen feeding.

So ... for a brief 1-day stint back in Palos Verdes when I thought it would be a longshot to see any whales at all, I had 5.5 hours of continuous humpack whale watching. Plus, the ocean was teeming with dolphins! Four different pods of common dolphin passed by on this sunny September afternoon. Now that's what I call lucky.

La Brea Tar Pits

In the middle of downtown Los Angeles there is a site eerily reminiscent of Jurrasic Park -- a true Jurrasic Park and not Hollywood fiction. Amid the tall buildings, small shops, and busy traffic of the city of Los Angeles lies Hancock Park, which harbors a startling collection of hot, bubbling naturally occurring tar pits. When you enter the park, it takes a moment for your senses to adjust to the stunning contrast between the urban chaos that is modern Los Angeles and this lush green park that is filled with bubbling cauldrons of goo, evoking images of Yellowstone National Park and wild lands of long ago.

The La Brea Tar Pits are estimated to be about 40,000 years old, and over the years a great many ancient animals got entrapped in the tar and died. Consequently, the bones of many varieties of ancient animals have been nearly perfectly preserved in the tar, providing a wealth of fossils for eager scientists to study. The museum makes a point of noting that no dinosaurs were found here, but only prehistoric mammals of more recent ancient times. The tar pits are fascinating to look at, and Hancock Park also contains the Page Museum, which displays many of the fossils that have been discovered in the tar pits, along with much historical and geological information about the area. The museum is wonderful and has many interesting fossils, including huge ground sloths, California camels, sabertoothed cats, and an amazing wall of over 400 skulls of dire wolves (illustrating how much variation there is even among members of the same species). For anyone planning to visit, it is also worth noting that the museum gives free admission to students and also teachers (including professors :). This place is a "must see" if you're in Los Angeles!

Pictures can be found here. (The pictures at the end are from a beautiful pond filled with turtles and koi that is inside the museum. I have no idea why it is there, except maybe to balance all the dead animal karma with a few live animals. :)