First Seal Puppy

This week we observed the first harbor seal pup of the season. All spring long, we see many slough babies such as this harbor seal pup. When new, they are cute wrinkly little guys yipping for their mama. It sure fun to watch them try to get their bearings and to nurse. Pups will continue to be born through mid-May.

Sea Lions

"This is a group of California Sea Lions, from the boat you can hear their characteristic barking sound", comments naturalist Rachel. These animals are quite common here and often put on a display that makes you laugh. While generally here most of the year, their numbers are particularly high just before and after big waves in the winter.

Candid Camera Sea Otter

I have been taking tours out on Elkhorn Slough for 15 years, and am amazed that there is always something new, but this has got to be one of the quirkiest observations yet. We just finished a week long set of cruises with a photography club. We had many wonderful wildlife shots including the baby otter. But this fellow seemed to be taking photos of us! A tourist must have dropped this video camera in the slough (been under a while as evidenced by the alga growth) and it was found by the otter. One of the photographers shared his photo with us and allowed us to post it. Photographer Enrique Aguirre stated, "OK, this is the funniest thing I have seen in the wild. I promise there is no Photoshop involved, this IS a REAL shot.". We wonder what the otter plans to use it for, maybe the sea otter is posting on u-tube right now.... Captain Yohn Gideon

Bird Count 2009

We volunteer our boat and time to the annual Christmas-time bird count sponsored by the Audubon Society, for over 15 years. Every year the Moss Landing area is a top birding spot, and has a top number of bird species for the entire country. Most years Elkhorn Slough is in the top 10 and often top 5 in the nation. Always held on the First of January for our area, this years unofficial count was over 201 species in one day!

Calm Waters

This time of year we get questions about the weather. Wintertime is some of the best wildlife watching as storm waves chase all sorts of critters into the quiet calm waters of the Elkhorn Slough. For example, we get much higher sea otter numbers and rarer sea going birds. The "weather windows" are nearly always full of sunshine. Much of the wildlife stays for days enjoying the new peaceful habitat.
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Birds and Birding at Its Best

The Fall bird migration is well underway. The numbers and variety is up! The smaller shorebirds are in very high numbers, so high that the mudflats appear to be alive and walking about. These Western Sandpipers travel great distances from Northern tundra to South America - and our Elkhorn Slough is just a rest stop along the way. They feed and fuel up here for the next leg of the journey. --- Capt

Captain Pumpkin

Employees at the Elkhorn Slough Safari work hard to make your slough adventure wonderful and informative. Taking a break from tours, they held a pumpkin carving competition. All jack-o-lanterns had to look like our Captain Yohn. Winner for the Most Like the Captain and the Funniest Captain were awarded.

Film on the Slough

Since I started working for the Elkhorn Slough Safari I’ve gained priceless knowledge about filming and photographing marine mammals in their natural state. For example, taking video in a moving environment using stabilizers, and that lighting in late afternoon gives spectacular footage. I hope the great information that I am learning on the Elkhorn Slough Safari will help me further my future career in creating nature documentaries as a filmmaker. ---Naturalist Cody

Elegant Terns

You can see the season turn with the rotation of the Terns. This photograph is of Elegant Terns that frequent Elkhorn Slough in late Summer and early Fall. Winter brings the Forster's tern, and Spring brings the Caspian Tern. Other occasional terns spotted on safari are the Least, Black, and Common terns plus the Black Skimmer. -- Capt. Yohn

Girlfriends on the Slough

Our friend Pat has been on the pontoon boat way over 10 times! She tells us that it is amazing that she sees new things each time she goes. What she likes most is sharing the experience with her friends. This photo is from her last trip out with us, she brought some of her high school graduating class from Minnesota. -- Captain Yohn

Photography Safari

These friends just took a private charter on our Elkhorn Slough Safari in search of the perfect photo.
Photo Buds Comment: "We've been on ES Safari 4 or 5 times now, and Captain Yohn always gets us in position for some GREAT wildlife shots, but that is not the reason we go. The main reason is it is so peaceful up Elkhorn Slough, nobody hassles us, and we are around the people we want to be with. It is a great adventure experience with your buddies!"

Sea Otters Galore

I used visit the Monterey Bay all the time in search of my favorite
furry friends, sea otters. I used to get ecstatic if I saw maybe one or two otters in the wild. But now that I work for the Elkhorn Slough Safari I look forward to seeing rafts of otters nearly everyday in their natural habitat. Today we actually saw 66 otters up close and personal, but that’s not all we also saw 159 harbor seals and over 47
species of birds. These tours are more than just tours, they’re an experience of a lifetime.
Naturalist/ Biologist Kelsi