Hello and a warm welcome to my fourth blog post.
It's Thursday 8th November 2018 and I'm travelling up north full of excitement as I'll be spending a few days away from home. I'd been seeing a lot of folk posting wonderful photos from a place called "Donna Nook" of such cute adorable fluffy seals. "Wow, I'd love to go there", I thought to myself, but it's a long way from my Eastbourne home! so, having been invited to a wedding up in Wakefield, I thought what better opportunity than to extend my visit by a few days and go in search of the seals! As I was driving up, I stopped for a break and had a quick look on facebook on my phone, what do I see, pictures posted in the Amateur Photography group I run of none other than a female grey seal giving birth to her newborn that very morning! You could see the tail raised and the unborn pup covered in the amniotic sac!!!" oh wow!" this just sent my excitement levels soaring as I really hoped I would be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time! Join me as I go in search to find an expectant female grey seal about to give birth!!!!
I had to wait until Sunday before I was standing in front of those beautiful sea creatures. The journey from Wakefield to Donna Nook, Lincs seemed to take forever as we made a few wrong turns! oops! Admittedly I was rather impatient to get there! We finally got there at about 11.30am. As this was a first visit for me, I didn't really know what to expect. I'd been to Horsey beach a couple of months earlier, back in Sept and was able to get onto the beach and up quite close to the seals, though naturally, I always maintain a respectable distance to allow the animals their space. (That's the beauty of having a long zoom lens!)
Donna Nook is managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust and whilst it's a public place as such, arriving by car, you pay a £5 fee for the whole day. Walking along the fenced- off pathway, I soon began to gain a full appreciation for just how many grey seals reside here during this time of the year! The terrain is quite muddy in places with water courseways and also sand dunes as well as further out, the beach itself. It looked like the sea was some distance away!
It was very busy along the stretch of fence and with so many seals about too, I didn't know where to look first! trying to gain a space in between the many folk was quite tricky, especially with my long lens! With patience, I managed to edge in between gaps whenever possible. It's great to see so many other like-minded folks also having a good appreciation for nature!
November is an important time in the lifecycle of the grey seal as this is when they come ashore to give birth. From talking to one of the wardens there, I learned a lot about this! The first grey seals arrived on 22nd October with the first seal pup being born the same day. At the time of my visit, 11th Nov, there had been 452 seal pups born and another 1500 expected during the remainder of the month! Having checked the latest weekly update with the
Lincolnshire wildlife Trust, as of 16th Nov 2018, the site had 334 bulls, 1038 cows (female grey seals) and 943 pups!!!! the question was, was I going to be lucky enough to actually get to witness a live birth for myself?
Looking out along the shoreline, I was taken in by the sights before me! The signs of seal pups having recently been born were clearly evident. Whilst mother nature is truly wonderful, it isn't always a pretty sight! The remnants of placental sacs and afterbirth scattered the beach in many places.
Whilst I stopped to take a few photos and generally scout the shoreline, I was looking for signs of any heavily pregnant seals about to give birth. I could see plenty of young day old pups, including one or two that had been born the night before and first thing that morning. These pups were literally lying right up close against the other side of the fence!!! it was a bit worrying as they seemed to be so still and on their own, but returning later that day, they were fine! They were so close that I struggled to get a pic with my massive zoom lens! I managed to capture this little seal pup here gazing up at me!!!
It was such a wonderful experience to witness the interaction taking place between mum and her young seal pup. The sheer size and weight of these large sea animals, females weighing in at about 155kg and measuring about 180cm in length is a stark contrast with their young ones lying up against them! a newborn weighing in at just 14kg. I saw quite a few young pups suckling from mum!
It was quite incredible to even be able to see the froth coming out of the young seal pup's mouth here! the brown mound on the right of the picture is indeed mum's body, the pup cupped around her teat. A cow's milk is very rich with a 60% fat content. This enables the young pups to quickly gain in weight, accumulating about 2kg per day! Most of this serves as a thick layer of blubber beneath the skin acting as insulation when they head out to sea. As part of the life cycle, a cow will suckle her pup for about 18 - 21 days, after which time she will be ready to mate again, often returning to the sea carrying her next future generation of grey seal pup!
I watched in admiration and fascination totally taken in by the loving interaction between mum and offspring. This female on the far right here was enjoying tickling her pup with her flipper as well as giving lots of nose rubs and kisses too!
As I continued my walk along the pathway, I saw lots of seabirds too. As I approached the far end of the pathway, I saw the telltale signs of a very promising sight in front of me! another photographer with a huge setup! we're talking the whole gubbins here! massive tripod, sound equipment, ream filmmakers equipment! This chap must know something I didn't!!!! so naturally, I got chatting to the chap and he had positioned himself here as he had his sights set upon a heavily pregnant female. I could see her lying on her own in the middle of the muddy ground. By this time, I'd been at the reserve for about 30 - 45 mins. I then spent the next hour and a half chatting to this chap and watching this female!
It can't be easy carrying a 14kg load inside you and naturally, the expectant female was starting to get a bit restless. I really felt for the poor girl though when she started to be harassed by a rather broody rampant male!!! This surprised me as I wondered why he would be stalking her when she's obviously clearly in no state to mate!!! Not only this, but the female also had 2 males positioned either side of her!
As time wore on, one of the wardens made an appearance and I got chatting to him. I had wondered if the males presence would interrupt the female's chance of giving birth but he told me that she will just go right ahead and give birth when she needs to! So I was still in with a chance!!! But the bull wouldn't leave her alone!!!! She positioned herself in some water but he soon followed! Here she is on the far right giving him a warning cry to back off!
I asked the warden why the bull was exerting his authority here or at least attempting to, but having done some reading since my return, I have a fuller understanding too. Whilst the female hasn't given birth yet, this bull wants to ensure that he is the male that is going to father the next generation of her pups. With a male either side of her, he's decided to be more brazen in his approach and leave no doubt about his intentions! As she will only be weaning her pup for about 3 weeks, he can stake his claim on her now by remaining at her side, ensuring no other male can gain access to her. "hands off, she's mine!" signals being clearly given off to other males in the vicinity! and if any male dares to challenge his authority, well things can get messy as this scene depicts! This was taken further up the beach and shows the war wounds received by a male trying to assert his dominance. I didn't witness the scene so I don't know if he got his way or not?
A few other folk came and went during the time I stood chatting to the warden and filmmaker and we all tried to work out from her movements etc how imminent the impending birth was to take place. I was really hopeful and bided my time waiting!!! I had been waiting since about 12.15pm. "Oh, I think the pup will be born by 2pm" the warden had said. So I waited!!!!
I thought it was safe to chance my luck and headed out to the refreshment van situated in the car park not far from where I had been. It was starting to get a tad chilly so a hot chocolate was very much in order! I headed back to check on the status with mum to be here but it was beginning to look like perhaps the birth wasn't going to be "quite" so imminent after all! she was quite still and other than the odd "warning bellow" to the male still harassing her, she was otherwise relatively calm and not showing signs of agitation.
I had travelled up with my friend Gareth, and whilst he was very patient in giving me all the time I wanted and needed, I was also aware that he was out taking care of my dog Benji, as naturally, it's a no four paws reserve! This was also the last day of our few days away, so we still had the long drive back ahead of us!! "mmm, I so would just be in my element to see a live birth but just how likely am I to actually witness it? how long can I afford to wait and just how much longer is this female likely to hold out?"
I hadn't really spent too much time at the reserve itself as my focus and attention had been largely spent on watching this heavily pregnant female, and I knew that I really wanted to spend more time observing some of the other seals too. So I decided to take a break from watching the mum to be and walked further along the pathway.
I saw a few scraps going on between two females. Hazarding a guess I would say they were giving each other warning calls to back away as they got too near each other's young pups! however, I have put my own caption to this and think it could almost be "new mum's having a banter about the joys of parenthood!"
At one point I actually wondered if I was in fact on a beach looking at seals! where had this imposter come from? it's not a seal......... it's a ................... Badger!!!!!!! oh it was rather comical to see! The remnants of the annual moult!!!
I saw a few males on my walk up the beach. At one point I saw two bulls chasing each other! It's really quite bizarre to watch these 230 kg sea mammals bounding along on their bellies!!!
Males are easier to spot as they have a heavier more thickset face and tend to be bigger than the females too often with a darker colouration. A male will reach sexual maturity at about 8 years of age. It is the biggest males usually those over 10 years of age who are more likely to be successful when it comes to mating. They will breed for about 15 years and have a lifespan of about 25 years.
Females reach sexual maturity at a younger age at about 4 years old and will also breed for about 15 years of their life. They have a longer life span in the wild than the male and can reach about 35 years of age. This female on the far right has a dappled white appearance and a dark grey coat, very characteristic of the species, though colour can vary and some seals can be brown too, as this female below shows.
This photo also demonstrates where the Latin name for the grey seal came from!
Halichoerus gyrus means "hooked-nose sea pig".
I couldn't help but appreciate just how long their whiskers are! I have since learned that they use these highly sensitive "mystacial vibrissae" to detect fish-generated water movements when hunting in poor visibility or dark conditions.
I loved the way I caught the light shining on this females whiskers here! They also seem to be so well camouflaged against the muddy brown beach.
After about half an hour, I thought I'd head back to the expectant female to see if there had been any further developments. From what I had been told by some of the wardens who had witnessed many births over the years, it really is a case of being in the right place at the right time! it can be as short as a 20-minute labour or as long as lasting a few hours or longer! I just hoped I hadn't missed anything!!!!
Back watching the heavily pregnant cow, she hadn't moved in the time since I had gone walkabouts. I stayed watching her for a short while longer before reluctantly starting to slowly make my way back towards the exit. This was going to have to be a wish to try to fulfill on another occasion!!!
Once more I ventured back towards the way in, passing the little visitor information hut and shop as I did so. I saw some folk carrying soft toys so thought I'd poke my nose into the shop to have a look, after all, you're never too old for soft toys, right? lol But the shop was rather busy so I left it to the real kids and gazed admiringly once more into the adorable eyes of some more seal pups.
I found out that seal pups are only white in colour for the first 2 - 4 weeks of their life. This long white coat is known as "Lanugo" which is moulted to become a shorter more adult-like coat. I saw pups of different colours too! some appeared to be more yellow than others so I suspect that these had been the more recently born of the seal pups. I also could see the remnants of the umbilical cord still atttached to the young pup too. This falls off within the first few days after birth.
I saw more affectionate displays between mother and her young pups which gave me a warm feeling deep inside. Looking at this photo here, you can see how mum's flipper here practically encases her young pup's rear end, her face nuzzling the upper body. I can almost hear the young pup saying, "mum, enough hugs now, I want to go and explore!!!"
By 3.30pm I had spent 4 hours at the reserve but could have quite easily spent another 4 hours there! my camera had been working overtime and when I returned home I realized I had taken about 850 photos!!!!! I hope you've enjoyed reading about my exciting day and looking at a small snippet from the many I took! So, my quest to see a live birth continues!!!!
But for now, it's over and out from this cute fluffy grey seal pup and I at Donna Nook.
If you're anything like me, you'll also have a full appreciation for colourful birds. I just find the vast array of different species of them fascinating! Axe Valley proved to a wonderful place as they house a variety of birds, both large and small. One of my favourite birds there was the White-Cheeked Turaco. First bred in the UK in 1964, they are the most popular of the Turaco species within zoos as they breed so well. Members of the family Musophagidae, this translates literally to "Banana eaters".
