Quite unexpectedly I had a free day today so at short notice I put the camera gear in the back of the car, some winter clothing and drove down to Donna Nook on the Lincolnshire coast again to have another session filming the Seals. It is just a week since my last visit, but from reading the wardens updates the number of seals appears to double week on week till mid-December.

It was a wet and miserable 80 mile drive from home, the journey took about one hour and thirty minutes with one road closed on route so I had to make a slight detour. Fortunately the sat nav took care of that. There were a dozen or so cars in the car park when I arrived at just after 10.00am. The rain had stopped but there was a cool north westerly wind, the mobile coffee shop hadn’t yet opened so I waited till I finished filming to get a coffee and bacon and sausage sandwich. I followed the track past the warden’s hut onto the shore line, there were lots more seals about today than last week and there was plenty last week. Young pups were everywhere, their lovely white fur coats looking completely out of place, many of them just hours old and having a snooze on the sand dunes adjacent to the protective fence. About a hundred yards away a pair of bulls were having quite a set to with each other with one of the bulls sustaining a nasty looking wound to the back of the head, it is surprising how vicious they can be with each other. There were several young pups close by and they risked the possibility of being smothered to death by the fighting adults, fortunately they managed to manoeuvre themselves to relative safety.  It was interesting to note that the number of cow seals that arrived on the beach had nearly doubled within the week and 1,201 pups had been born from 1,390 cows. I noticed lots of Pied Wagtails close by today, feeding on the fresh afterbirth. In the distance there were several flocks of Starling and other sea birds that kept flying around in huge murmurations before coming down to land amongst the long grass and sand dunes.

It was fascinating looking at the older pups, their fur coats now matted by the wet sand and mud, the same with the bulls and cows, the majority contently sleeping or snoozing in the shallow pools of water. The wardens office said that a cow called ‘ropeneck’ had arrived overnight but looking for it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack not helped though as I had left my binos at home. Within the next week or so many of these young pups will be left to fend for themselves as their mother leaves them after about 18 days. The mother will then mate with one of the bulls and once pregnant head back out to see for another year. The pup she has left on the sand dunes has to survive on its accumulated fat reserves for the next two weeks, during which time its white natal fur is moulted for its first adult coat. Once they gain their adult coat the pups make the long journey to the water’s edge and its new life in the sea. 

Let’s hope I can arrange another return visit in the next few weeks.