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Health & Fitness

Harbor Sealed With a Kiss

When I think North Coast, my first destination is always Four Mile Beach.

Good morning and greetings, North Coast fans.  If you like marine mammals, then SunriseSantaCruz.com has filled your viewing needs the last couple of weeks, as we've featured elephant seals, sea lions and a couple of San Jose Sharks .   

So this week, in honor of the Navy SEALs who took out Osama bin Laden, we are shredding up the coast to check out some harbor seals, who all agreed that living in a custom-built home in Pakistan would be much better than holing up in a sea cave, especially when it came to getting TV reception for their favorite shows on Animal Planet.

So it was on a lovely morning in May that I headed up to Four Mile Beach to check out the low tide action. The wild flowers were in full bloom, and any time I journey to this spot, it's a treat, as I never know what I'll find, much like when emptying my pockets after a rave concert.    

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On this day, the beach was loaded with gulls, who were chatting it up on the sea grass that normally would have been covered over by water. And then to my surprise and delight, I spotted some harbor seals resting on the shelves. They eyed me very suspiciously, like I was going to ask them to sign release forms. Fortunately, a few lingered long enough for me to get a few shots, as most of their cohorts hightailed it into the Pacific and refused to come out until I left the beach, even after offering them hot chocolate and fresh scones.

Since then, I haven't had the opportunity to shoot these adorable-looking creatures. My daughter has always been a fan, as she is quite fond of their heart-shaped noses. I'm just happy that she still thinks I'm on an extended sabbatical from Harvard.  

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So for some bonus nature coverage, I went back to Four Mile a couple weeks later, and as I headed down the path to the beach, I spotted a bobcat ahead of me. This was going to be my lucky day. Like an undercover lover, I tracked him down to the sand, where I nailed a couple of shots of this beautiful juvenile. I then contacted Boy's Life, National Geographic and Guns and Ammo, and they had no record of any photos of bobcats in the sand. Up next, I’m going after Bigfoot and UFOs at sunrise.     

Things got a little dicey later when I followed the bobcat up into the brush, and all of a sudden, he turned and started coming at me. Fortunately, thanks to a year of Algebra 1, I'm an expert at playing dead, so I convinced him to leave me intact, as I've found that jagged puncture wounds really can spoil your morning. Coincidentally, on this same day, a crazed bobcat attacked a couple of hikers in Arizona and tragically killed one of them. Fortunately, all I came away with was some big cat memories and a case of poison oak.    

To read more and check out photos of the bobcat and Four Mile, go to SunriseSantaCruz.com and click on blog.

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