Pupping Time

 Thursday December 5

We took a risk and it paid off, the Winterton beach car park was open. It's the pupping season for Grey Seals, Winterton beach has become an increasingly populat birthing ward. Over two thousand seals are using it this year. At the beginning of the season, high winds made it too rough for them to use Horsey and  Waxham, so they all came to Winterton, where there is more sandy beach available. One seal had climbed up the steep dune sides to have her pup near the sheds. A warden was almost permanently on duty nearby. Pam walked in that area and was able to get as close as was feasible, and desirable, for the animal's comfort.

Pam parked so that I had a view of the main area through the marram and ropes.

 



There was a constant low level noise coming from the nursery, as adults came and went, greeting each other and their pups. 

Offshore, heads kept appearing like crab pot marking buoys, occasionally, one came ashore. Their sinuous, muscular bodies, effortlessly and gracefully surfing the waves inshore, became rather clumsy gallumphing creatures once on the beach. Flippers are not the best designed walking tools.


There are always many gulls in attendance, waiting for the nutrient rich afterbirths. These can be the reason they survive the winter - or not. One gull was guarding a dead pup, taking an occasional bite - it's gizzard was bulging..


I didn't manage a pup photograph as good as the one in 2025's Countryfile calendar, but I enjoyed trying.These are cropped from the main photos.


Feeding time


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Moth Migration

Image
 Wednesday October 9 Like birds, moths migrate when the season and weather conditions are right. Recently, we have had easterly winds with a mouth watering fall of birds which we have been unable to walk and see. Many Yellow-browed Warblers, Eastern Crowned Warbler in Shetland, a possible Amur Stonechat and an Asian Desert Warbler in Norfolk. Our moth traps have had a reasonable sprinkling of the migrant moths - although some could be breeding here by now. Palpita Vitrialis Scarce Bordered Straw Delicate   and Rusty Dot Pearl
Read more

Day 12

Image
 Monday May 6 Most of the morning was occupied getting in touch with the car insurance people and then Autoglass - then waiting for Autoglass to get back to us.  A  stone chipped our windscreen on the way through Skye, since then its become a one foot plus horizontal crack on Pam's side. End result. We take the car to Lewis or Skye or wait until we get home. The garage here 'doesn't have the equipment to deal with the sensor in the front screen'. Ian, Heather's husband, says he does them all the time! Ah well, live with it.  Almost the first bird we saw as we drove north was a lovely male Hen Harrier. It was distant but I had to try, one of these days I'll get a decent photo. Original photo before editing, taken with 500mm lens    Edited     As we drove down to Loch Paible, a flock of fifteen Whimbrel dropped in to the near corner.We needed to turn the car, by which time the birds had gone, this Wheatear posed nicely for me.    A short d...
Read more

Spring-like

Image
 Sunday March 2 Winter Aconites, Daffodils, Snowdrops, and Acacia Tree in full flower in the garden, blue sky and sun, Alexanders appearing in roadside verges, it looks like Spring. It is meteorological spring. Awaking to frosty lawns and a temperature of 1C says that we have a way to go yet. On such a day it is easy to eagerly anticipate the first Wheatears, my Spring harbinger. So many Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps now overwinter that it's increasingly difficult to separate the latter from migrants. We made our way west, picking up many of the passerines we missed yesterday and at the end of February. Song Thrush is always a treat. It's hard to recall their tameness and sheer numbers on the Isles of Scilly. Even longer ago, a garden bird using our path as an anvil.  The finch flock at Flitcham is decreasing, we managed one Brambling flitting along the hedgerow. Our garden visitor hasn't been for about a week.Still no Little Owl visible at Abbey Farm nor in West Newton. The fi...
Read more