Wildlife scene in high gear

Ocean wildlife seems to be swarming in and around Newport Beach these days as the weather warms along the coast. During the last week sea lions, pods of grey whales and even a swan or two have been spotted making their way around the city’s waters.

This week a large crowd of sea lions emerged along the Balboa Peninsula coast. The mammals, according to observers, waved as they made their way south from the 50th Street area toward the harbor inlet. But for regular wildlife watchers the appearance is nothing out of the ordinary.

“They do that all the time. It’s cold out there, and they’re just trying to warm themselves up,” said Joel Monroe, an Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol mooring deputy.

Months earlier the sea lions were somewhere along the Channel Islands giving birth, but the possibility of a large number of fish along the coast could offer one explanation for the early visit.

“If they are showing up now, it is because food is out there and they are hungry,” said Dennis Kelly a professor of marine science at Orange Coast College. “Anytime a sea lion can get food easier they are going to do that.”

Roaming pinnipeds can cause problems when they get into the harbor and onto the boats, Monroe said. “For the sea lions they are just big platforms,” he said.

Monroe recommended that boat owners with swim steps lay out plastic chairs to block the animals looking to sunbathe. For sailboats with decks low to the water line, orange construction netting works best, Monroe said.

“They don’t really have any depth perception,” Monroe said. “If they don’t have any place to get out of the water they are not going to want to hang out.”

Stingrays and jellyfish are also on the list of sea life to keep an eye out for.

Local bird-watcher Vernona Fath spotted a pair of mute swans while on her daily drive down Back Bay Road with her husband. The Faths spotted the birds cruising along the bay waters

Fath identified the pair as mute swans due to their color and the black coloring just above their beaks, she said. Swans don’t usually make it out this far into the bay, Fath said.

The last they saw of the birds they were winding toward the harbor waters, she said.

Fath, who also fishes at least twice a week on the Balboa Pier, has seen a number of grey whales feeding their young close to the shore. And she is not the only one.

A few of the calves have been spotted pretty close to shore, Fath said.

The whales are returning from their migration to the lagoons of Baja California on their way back up toward Alaska. The return trip north may take longer since the whales now have youngsters in tow.

“There are somewhere between 200 and 300 whales passing by here every day,” Kelly said, adding that at that speed they should all be gone in a month.

With the warm weather, March may be just the time to get outdoors and look for some visiting wildlife. According to experts, they won’t be around much longer.