Elephant Seals

I'm still looking back at my photos from my trip to the Channel Islands in SoCal. I know this photo doesn't have much to do with anything that flies, except for the Western Gull standing on this beach on San Miguel Island. But I just have to give these incredible Elephant Seals some exposure. Notice how they dwarf the California Sea Lions next to them, which normally strike us as pretty big themselves. (Is that a sea lion on top of one of the Elephants?) But even more amazing is that they sometimes dive to depths of 5,000 ft. to feed on the ocean floor, and they take a nap during the hour that it takes them to get down so deep. (I learned this, and some other fascinating facts, from a young naturalist on our boat.) Amazing!