4-23-13 Elephant Seal, Banded Peregrine, Hydrographic Surveying, Calls in the Night

Tuesday, April 23rd
...middle of the night...Transients wake me up...

...about 9:20 I see an elephant seal offshore from Deadman Bay...
...1:30 a trip out with Maya's Westside Charters...not very far out of the harbor we see an elephant seal!...I looked up the tide chart and it was an incoming tide since 9:00am....could very well be the same elephant seal...and this time I got a picture...

...we were looking for those 'midnight Transients'...we saw Dall's porpoise, Steller sea lions, harbor seals, but no killer whales...
...we went to look for one of the Peregrine falcon pairs and located one of the falcons...he/she is banded!!

...the Steller sea lions, some who have been hanging out at Kelp Reef marker were not there today...wonder if it had anything to do with the Transients who came through last night...but there there several groups of Stellers over in Spieden Channel, all who looked very relaxed...

...at the computer at about 6pm there is some tapping that starts up on the hydrophones - not again! ...this occurred a couple days ago....I alerted the hydrophone experts, since I didn't have a clue - related to the hydrophones?? or not??...it appears it may be hydrographic surveying - I guess you could say - mapping of the ocean floor...
...so if you listen in and hear some rhythmic tapping - that might be what it is...it may drive you crazy after a while!...oh, it's going to be a long night - hope some whales show up and break up the ping-pong monotony!