Sea Lions in Westport (PhotoFeed Contest - Wildlife)

Last week I took a couple short bus trips to Westport, Wash., a small sport and commercial fishing town on the Pacific Coast.

I visited on two back-to-back days, photographing in and around the marina.

On the first day, the sea lions were barking when I got off at the bus stop next to the marina. In the past I've seen them hanging out on the docks, so I knew where to look for them. It was only a short walk down Westhaven Drive (above) to find them. Then I headed down a section of dock (one of the numbered 'floats', see below) across from them to get set up for a photoshoot.

As I was walking down to the end of the dock to get set up, a construction worker approached the sea lions on their dock, and they all scattered into the water. I started shooting as they were retaking their positions.

They squabbled with each other for space, getting quite noisy and ferocious at times.

They sure know how to bask in that sun!

They took on more color (and got furrier) as they dried off.

A few of them swam quite close to where I was positioned. It made me a bit nervous, thinking one might try to climb up next to me (none did). But, I had just seen them scatter like birds when the worker approached them, so I stood my ground.

In the photo above you can see one of the physical features that helps distinguish between a sea lion and a seal: sea lions have those little pointy ears, whereas seals have a hole for an ear.(Source)

When they had retaken their positions after being scattered by the worker, the colony took up two arms of the dock, with a few more still in the water between them.

The group in the water just hung out ... when they weren't fighting to get up on the dock. At times it looked like they were floating there asleep.

But soon enough they tried to get out of the water, which always caused a ruckus.

I split my time with the sea lions between stills and video, both filmed with my Canon 80D and a 75-300mm zoom lens.

The ruckus, the action and sound of the day, is best experienced through the video (which I published via YouTube only because I haven't been able to log onto 3Speak lately). You can hear the barking, snorts, and various other sea lion noise. The best fight scene, if you will, as they argue over space on the dock, is after minute six.

Eventually I felt like I had (more than enough) material on the sea lions, and I wandered off to find other sights on the marina and along the water.

Later, I took one final shot of the sea lions, looking back on the marina from the Westport Viewing Tower.

Thanks for viewing!