To the delight of visitors to the Redondo Beach pier, a yearling Pacific gray whale stopped near the beach Wednesday during its return trip to Alaska. The whale has been spotted all week rolling around on the ocean floor, playing in the surf and snacking.

Its species migrates annually from its northern feeding grounds to Baja California lagoons, where adults mate and give birth in the warm waters.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the American Cetacean Society Los Angeles chapter’s Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project based at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center for 33 years, said this whale is probably making his first annual migration independently of his or her mother.

• VIDEO: See the gray whale in action near the Redondo Beach pier

“They are super playful, probably rolling around and scratching in the sand,” Schulman-Janiger said. “It has lots of whale lice but it’s not in trouble, just having fun.”

The whale probably ran into some food close to shore, as they can feast on more than 90 kinds of prey. Their favorite meal is small shrimp-like amphipods in mud on the Arctic ocean floor, but they “may grab a snack at times during migration — especially juveniles,” she said.

Since December, when southbound whales begin passing Los Angeles each year, the gray whale census has documented 1,427 grays heading to Baja. They are now nearing the end of their northern migration, and the census counted 1,814 traveling north. More than 60 calves were seen among the migrating groups in what was a healthy year for the population, Schulman-Janiger said.

• PHOTOS: A closer look at the gray whale in Redondo Beach