Can We Go In Now? I'm Hungry!
From the date, you will be able to tell that I made another trip up north yesterday to visit the seals. I did take more photographs (I actualy filled a 4GB card), but it was even more interesting observing some of the behaviors of these mammals.
The young one you see here was on shore about twenty feet from the water's edge crying plaintively. You would think from the racket he was making that he had lost his mother. (I have a video of that ... albeit only on the old Kodak 7430 that I used to use when I first uploaded photographs to Flickr. I might upload it later so you can hear what they sound like). Actually though, his mother was offshore fishing. When I happened to turn around, I could see her in the surf. It was quite windy there again and large waves were rolling in onshore. She used to stop, push herself straight up in the water and look in at him. He made his way down to the water's edge, crying as he went, and entered the water. Mama then swam in and joined him, took him out a ways, then brought him back and lay on the bottom, half in and half out of the water, turned over and let him suckle. The waves would splash over them. Both days I was there, seeing the young ones suckle was a common sight ... but they were onshore at the time. This was the first time I had seen it happen while they were both in the water.
This mother was not the only one fishing in the waters just offshore. It was quite rough, as I mentioned, but I managed to get a few shots of them in the water. They appeared to lie on their backs with their head underwater. Because of their eye placement, I guess that position made it easier for them to see what was underneath them.
Another thing I noticed, a whitecoat attempted to suckle from a female that obviously wasn't his mother. She really roughed him up ... bit at him, and half rolled on top of him and drove him away. Some of these pups really have lost their mothers, I believe. I actually saw one large mammal dead on the rocks. When I took a walk along the beach, I saw another whitecoat near another mother and her pup. He looked much smaller than the others and had a large reddish-orange spot on his back. I assume he had been trying the same thing but had paid much more dearly for it. All very interesting.
There are still quite a few of them there but not nearly as many as the first day I was there. The ice they came in on has really melted quite a lot, too.
Can We Go In Now? I'm Hungry!
From the date, you will be able to tell that I made another trip up north yesterday to visit the seals. I did take more photographs (I actualy filled a 4GB card), but it was even more interesting observing some of the behaviors of these mammals.
The young one you see here was on shore about twenty feet from the water's edge crying plaintively. You would think from the racket he was making that he had lost his mother. (I have a video of that ... albeit only on the old Kodak 7430 that I used to use when I first uploaded photographs to Flickr. I might upload it later so you can hear what they sound like). Actually though, his mother was offshore fishing. When I happened to turn around, I could see her in the surf. It was quite windy there again and large waves were rolling in onshore. She used to stop, push herself straight up in the water and look in at him. He made his way down to the water's edge, crying as he went, and entered the water. Mama then swam in and joined him, took him out a ways, then brought him back and lay on the bottom, half in and half out of the water, turned over and let him suckle. The waves would splash over them. Both days I was there, seeing the young ones suckle was a common sight ... but they were onshore at the time. This was the first time I had seen it happen while they were both in the water.
This mother was not the only one fishing in the waters just offshore. It was quite rough, as I mentioned, but I managed to get a few shots of them in the water. They appeared to lie on their backs with their head underwater. Because of their eye placement, I guess that position made it easier for them to see what was underneath them.
Another thing I noticed, a whitecoat attempted to suckle from a female that obviously wasn't his mother. She really roughed him up ... bit at him, and half rolled on top of him and drove him away. Some of these pups really have lost their mothers, I believe. I actually saw one large mammal dead on the rocks. When I took a walk along the beach, I saw another whitecoat near another mother and her pup. He looked much smaller than the others and had a large reddish-orange spot on his back. I assume he had been trying the same thing but had paid much more dearly for it. All very interesting.
There are still quite a few of them there but not nearly as many as the first day I was there. The ice they came in on has really melted quite a lot, too.