Each Mother's Day weekend, my family meets at Grayland State Park for a weekend of camping, beachcombing and, in some years, clamming. Normally on these weekends, I have some amazing hike planned and cant join them. But this year was different - I purposefully left the weekend open so I could join them.
Not only would I be able to spend time with my family relaxing by the beach, I would also be able to work a little on my Washington State Parks project as many of the beaches along the southern part of the state are publicly owned. I also figured I could work on a few special photo techniques while there. It would be a good weekend even though the weather reports didn't sound promising.
I got the 1st text from my cousin sometime Friday afternoon. She had gone earlier to the campsite and stopped by the harbor town of Westport. The text read - There must be 50 sea lions on the docks right now!
Whoa! That's a lot of sea lions even for the fishing port of Westport.
Westport is a fisherman's mecca. A large protected harbor on the south arm of Greys Harbor, fisherman, both recreational and commercial, moor their boats here. Clean their fish here.
As a protected harbor, Westport also provides several nice calm haul-outs for sea lions, ie, docks. And May is the beginning of breeding season for them. So by the time I got there on Saturday, about 50 sea lions were pilled on the dock, sunning themselves, barking, fighting, sleeping. Several swam around the docks and spy hopped to watch us as we watched them.
I spent some time in the morning photographing before heading to meet the family. And then after lunch, we drove back up for more photos.
I may not classify myself as a wildlife photographer, but when presented with such easy subjects even I will pull out my long lens to play.
