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.

In all, a fantastic experience; a nice collection of photographs to take back, good company, beautiful scenery, tired but job done!

Canada Goslings

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks.

My main camera, a Canon 1D MkIII, has had to go in for repair and I have been unable to get out and photograph anything new, so I decided to buy a new backup - the new Canon EOS 7D. It's new upgraded auto focus has taken a little getting used to, but it looks like it will serve my style of photography very well!

Due to limited time - and the unpredictable weather, yesterday was the first day I got to really test the 7D, and I knew exactly where to test it.
I had noticed, a few days ago, that there were a couple of pairs of Canada Geese on Ryde Canoe Lake that had some young Goslings and they looked so sweet in their fuzzy greeny yellow appearance, so off I went to try and get a few photographs of them before they grew to much.

The colour of these Goslings really helps them blend into the surroundings, helping them to avoid predators.

The mother was quite happy having me photograph the Goslings - after observing them for a while I realised their main concern was the Mute Swans. They would chase the Goslings if they were far enough away from their mother. It was interesting to notice the male was never too far away, watching over it's young and ready to hiss and go on the offensive if anything got too close.

For such small young, these Goslings are so quick on the water. One of them (photograped below) was chased around by a Mute Swan and was unable to get out of the water onto the path, so the mother, followed by the rest of the siblings went in to the water and, with the help of the male, took the signet to safety.

I will try and follow these young as they grow, and get a few more photographs to add to a new Blog post in the not too distant future.