10 North Bound 0 South Bound 6 hrs

Wind 9-12 mph with gusts 15+mph. White caps and rough choppy surf. Sunny with stratus layer at the horizon. Ten northbound Gray Whales quickly migrated past the transect in four sightings including a quad, a trio, a pair and a solo.

A juvenille California Towhee or Canyon Towee perched in branches. A healthy looking California Ground Squirrel also known as the Beechey ground squirrel seen here eating naturally foraged seeds. They enjoy eating fresh grass, nuts and plants of which there is an abundance of all year long at the Point Dume Nature Preserve. Please do not feed the squirrels, even well intentioned feeding will eventually lead to dependance and when the next human doesn’t provide food they become agitated and confused which can lead to aggressive behaviors.

Film crew, for insurance company took up many of the parking spaces today. Later skim board surfers enjoy gliding over the sand at low tide.

Three whales in first shot, identification white patch on second shot followed by a pair of whales then a solo whale all in a hurry migrating north.

A bright orange golden glow sunset at the west side of Anacapa Island. Thanks to the scattering of light known as the “Rayleigh scattering” of which the yellow/ orange rays are a longer wavelength and can be seen at sunset and sunrise, shorter wavelengths give us the blue sky.