We spent the day playing games and watching the high tide. At some point, someone noticed that there were sea lions swimming around in the bay. The kids were out the door quite fast. We were enjoying watching them roll and swim and play.
(I thought the way they were watching was pretty cute.)
You can see one of them swimming in the water above.
But then as the afternoon wore on and the tide waters receeded, we noticed something on the beach.
Upon further inspection we found this guy/girl and he/she didn't look like they felt very well.
As the waters came back up the sea lion would lift it's head.
The sea lion eventually mustered up some strenth and pulled himself further up the sand. After he just layed there for a long while we decided to call the State Police and see what they had to say. They decided to send out a volunteer who handled these kinds of situations.
About thirty minutes later the trooper and a local citizen arrived with a sign to place near the sea lion and check him/her out. The trooper said that there is a virus going around for the sea lions. The trooper approached the sea lion and he only lifted his head to bark at her once and it wasn't very convincing. She agreed that his behavior was not normal and that if he was still there in the morning they would send out mammal rescue. She also said that sometimes they rest and recover and sometimes they don't.
We have learned a lot and it was fun for the kids to learn about sea lions. We are going to spend some time researching them this week now that we have seen one in real life up close. In the morning our sea friend had disappeared. We are hoping that rest and recovery was what happened. But either way it was a fascinating lesson in life and a great way to spend the afternoon observing.
2 comments:
that seems like a lot of fun!
that top photo is so tender and lovely!
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