A day with the Seals

I had a wonderful experience yesterday, with some wildlife that I never thought I'd get anywhere near to, let alone see in the wild.

The plan was to go and photograph a group of Common Seals (Phoca vitulina), also known as Harbor or Harbour Seals.

The journey started off early with a drive to the mainland followed by the usual motorway delays on the way to meet up with a relative, Jim, who would help show me where Harbour Seals might be. It was reported that the Seals hadn't been seen in the area we were going to for a while, so my expectations for us finding them was not that high.

Jim had bought his home built canoe along for the trip - and what a wonderful canoe it is! It's design and lightness made it very agile and fast on the water!

After a 30-40 minute run on the water, we tried the first inlet where the Seals had previously been seen but there was no sight of them at all, so we headed back into the main channel for a further 20 or so minutes until we reached the next inlet and it was Jim who sighted the Seals hauled out on a sandbank a good distance up ahead. With a quick change to the electric outboard for a quiet approach so as not to frighten the Seals, we headed upstream on the opposite side of the water keeping a good distance from the Seals and they seemed quite at ease with our passing them.

Jim held back upstream while I moved to a closer bank so that I could half beach the dinghy rather than photograph on the now flowing tide. I didn't want to get too close or frighten the Seals off so this further distance gave me the opportunity to use the long end of the lens and still get some nicely detailed photographs. There were 11 Seals in total, including a good number of Bulls (males), Cows (females) and a couple of maturing young, and soon one of the group slipped into the water to take a closer look at what I was doing, which gave me the perfect opportunity to get some lovely photographs of the Seal in it's home environment.

The Seals spent their time basking in the sun which allowed me to take plenty of photographs until the tide had risen to the point where I was starting to drift so, not wanting to get too close and frighten the Seals, I signaled back to Jim that I was now ready to move back out and away from the group.

Even on a neap tide, it's suprising how fast the flow is in this area and soon a number of the Seals had taken to the water, with a few being quite inquisitive, but I now felt it was time to leave them in peace and head back on the tide.