Whiskers in the Wild: Week Two - Heat, Hierarchies & Harbor Landmarks
Join us for wildlife stories, field notes, and plenty of coastal surprises - from sea lions at the marina to hidden tide pools and a shop full of nature-inspired art.
Channel Islands Harbor, Oxnard, California // August 27th, 2025
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Equipment
Locations
📍 Sea Fresh Channel Islands — 3550 Harbor Blvd, Oxnard, CA 93035
Family-owned, right on the harbor. Great for fresh seafood, chowder in a bread bowl, and a breezy patio dinner before heading out to watch the colony. Parking & restrooms available in the plaza.
📍 Honey Cup Coffee House — 3500 Harbor Blvd, Oxnard, CA 93035
Local coffee shop in the Channel Islands Harbor plaza. My favorite: Honey Comb Iced Latte with oat milk. Great pastries, friendly baristas, and plenty of plaza parking. Restrooms available in the plaza.
📍 Channel View Park — 29 Ocean Dr, Oxnard, CA 93035
Small park at the harbor entrance, just steps from Hollywood Beach. Sea lions often gather on the rocks and in the water - listen for their signature “arf”! No restrooms at the park, but facilities are available elsewhere in the harbor. Limited street and lot parking.
📍 Kiddie Beach Park — 2721 Victoria Ave, Oxnard, CA 93035
Calm, protected cove inside Channel Islands Harbor. Great for families and swimming. Lifeguard on duty in summer. Showers, restrooms, and free parking on-site. Check water advisories after storms. Recently a major sea lion haul-out - maintain a safe distance and follow posted restrictions.
📍 Hobie Beach — 2974-3098 Victoria Ave, Oxnard, CA 93035
Designated launch site for kayaks, SUPs, and small sailboats. Calm harbor water, easy marina access. Free parking in adjacent lot. Restrooms & showers nearby at Kiddie Beach.
Week Two: Changes on the Water
If last week was about finding a rhythm, this one was about adapting to the extremes. Southern California’s heat wave hit hard. 75° at the harbor doesn’t sound high on paper, but it’s a different story when you’re on a top-floor apartment with harsh ocean light, no AC, and high humidity. Meanwhile, it was triple digits inland. My week was a blur of early mornings, golden evenings, and squeezing in fieldwork at the harbor mouth between a packed personal schedule - A24’s AAA24 Member’s Only Movie Night featuring Hereditary at the Grove, Ethel Cain at the Shrine, and some needed downtime wading at Solimar Beach. Even with everything in flux, watching the sea lions brought me back to center every time.
Perched at the Jetty Light
Most days, you’ll find me posted up on the cement base of the harbor’s green entrance light, a tall, blue-gray Coast Guard beacon that flashes every four seconds to guide boats home. I stick to the cement base of the jetty light (never climbing or crossing into restricted areas) and use it as a steady vantage point for photography. Salt spray hangs in the air, sea lions thread through the rocks below, and the steady pulse of the channel is right in front of me.
From this vantage, the layered world of the harbor comes into focus. Out on the horizon, you can spot Platform Gina - a distant oil and gas production platform in the Santa Barbara Channel. It’s industrial, sure, but also a gathering place for marine life - an artificial reef where fish and seabirds congregate, and a reminder that the coast is shaped by both nature and industry.
Sea Lion Stories: Piles, Hierarchies, and a Bull with Attitude
This week brought a healthy mix of morning and evening visits, and with them, new faces in the colony. For the first time, I started to pick out a few easily-recognizable females in the pile - still outnumbered, but unmistakable once you know what to look for. Watching the “pile dynamics” has become a favorite pastime. Sea lions don’t just haul out randomly; there’s a social order at work. Larger, dominant males usually claim the prime haul-out spots at the center or highest points, while younger males, females, and juveniles cluster toward the edges. Social rank plays out in small but constant ways - through nudges, vocal displays, and subtle displacements when space runs short.
And then there are the bulls, the largest adult males. Massive and scarred, with worn teeth and a constant string of barks and grunts, they stand out from the rest of the haul-out. At the harbor mouth, it isn’t unusual to see several bulls sharing the rocks, but they still enforce a hierarchy. The dominant male claims the best vantage point, while others spread out with a cautious buffer of space. Their interactions - a shove here, a sharp bark there - keep the order clear without escalating into the full battles you’d see at a breeding rookery.
Water Clarity & Wildlife Guests
One thing that’s surprised me lately is just how clear the water has been in the shallows. On calm mornings, you can see straight down to the sand, sunlight catching every ripple and making the whole harbor feel brighter.
As always, there were a few regular visitors like gulls and rock crabs, but this week brought a new face: a beautiful Snowy Egret that lingered on the shoreline until the tide washed away its little oasis. These small moments are a reminder that the harbor is more than just a sea lion stage; it’s a crossroads for all kinds of coastal life.
Human/Wildlife Interactions: The Good, the Bad, and the Teachable
Sharing space isn’t always seamless. I watched volleyball players on Hollywood Beach do their best to keep a respectful distance when the ball went rogue, but also saw more people letting their dogs get far too close to the sea lions (please, don’t). There was even someone yelling at the colony from the rocks; sometimes, all you can do is document and hope that more people choose respect over confrontation. The line between curiosity and intrusion is thin, and every week offers a new reminder of how important it is to give these animals space.
Health Update: A Difficult Reminder
This week, I ended up making two separate reports to CIMWI. The first was for an adult male sea lion who clearly wasn’t himself - lethargic, eyes closed even when the rest of the group was alert, and noticeably separated from the others. It took my telephoto lens to spot the problem: a thin piece of rope, deeply embedded and almost invisible from a distance.
A few days earlier, I’d also spotted another adult male with a clear, tight loop of fishing line around his neck. Unlike the first, this sea lion was behaving normally and moving with the group, but the line was unmistakable. Both encounters were sobering reminders of the threats these animals face, even when most of the colony looks healthy and active.
I’m purposefully not including photos of these injured sea lions here, but I did document them for my CIMWI report. If you see something wrong, report it. Even a small detail, like a line or a change in behavior, can make a difference. These moments aren’t easy, but they’re why careful observation and action matter.
Gallery note: One image shows a sea lion’s flipper with old, healed notches - likely from a past injury. Injuries like this are common in wild sea lions, and many adapt and continue to thrive. I’m sharing this for documentation and education; as always, acute or distressing injuries are only photographed for reporting and not included here.
A Note on Island Packers & Self-Care
Some of you may remember I mentioned a whale watching trip with Island Packers last week. I ended up not making it out on the water this time - between the heat wave and some ongoing health challenges, I realized I needed to listen to my body and sit this one out. Island Packers was incredibly understanding and supportive (seriously, cannot recommend their team enough), and we have a Santa Cruz Island excursion coming up on September 5th that I’m really looking forward to.
I always want to be transparent about the realities of fieldwork, and sometimes that means making the call to rest so I can keep showing up for the next adventure. Thanks for sticking with me and for caring about these stories, even when they take a few unexpected turns.
Life, Heat, and Harbor Perspective
Between the heat, the crowds, and a busy week of non-wildlife plans, these colony visits have been a needed reset. Some days, it’s just me, the jetty, and the colony. Other times, it’s a full cast: volleyball players, dog walkers, seabirds, and the ever-present backdrop of Platform Gina on the horizon.
Scroll down for this week’s gallery - morning gold, evening light, and all the drama in between.
Thanks for following along and for caring about our wild neighbors.
Gallery
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