Lion's Tale

This is a lion from my garden, but the one I watched so avidly this afternoon and didn't photograph was a sea lion. In all the years I've sat out on the wharf, I've never seen one of these animals with a chunk of fish before. It looked like he'd found some nice long trimmings from a boat or the market. I'm pretty sure sea lions have good teeth, but the preferred method for portioning out this meal seemed to be to grip the fish in his mouth, raise his big whiskered head up out of the water and shake it enthusiastically until he was left with a gullet-sized piece. The rest would go flying out over the water, with the seagulls giving chase, but to no avail: as soon as the sea lion gulped one mouthful he would find his treasure again and repeat the vigorous bloody shaking, bite after bite until the fish had disappeared.