After a trip to Brussels brought me some TOIL in early February, my first thought was not to visit the seal rookery at Horsey- we’d been at Christmas to see the pups, and in summer to swim with the adults, but I’d filed late winter away as a bit of a ‘meh’ time to visit the colony. I was completely wrong on this – its still an active haul-out at this time of year, and I’ve never been to South Georgia, but I imagine that the beaches littered with elephant seals is a very similar vibe.
As with seabird colonies, you could smell them before you could see them – a sharp iron-y odour that prickled one’s nose as a prelude to spotting the hundreds of grey shapes snoozing by the waves. Turnstones and sanderlings picked their way around the sleeping giants, with the herring and black backed gulls providing a more ominous presence (they were mainly there as a cleaning crew, eating the bodies of the pups that didn’t make it- it’s worth bearing in mind that you will see dead pups at this time of year). A lot of the males were nursing injuries that were probably sustained during their struggles to be beach master – another reminder of the sometimes brutal realities of grey seal life.
But not everything was grim evidence of the struggle for survival. I took out my new 600mm lens (an act which if regularly repeated is going to give me incredible biceps) and started scanning through the colony. It was wonderful to be able to see the little details that would otherwise go unnoticed, like the seals’ wiry eyebrows or the little notches on the side of the head that show you where the ears are. They were clearly enjoying the warmth of the sun, and things were remarkably calm compared to two months ago when pupping was in full swing. A couple of very late pups still had their air of innocence and mournful eyes, and I was stricken as always with the fact that they’d soon be heading out into the unforgiving North Sea to make their way in the world.
I’ll definitely be coming back at this time of year. There aren’t many places in the UK where you can see marine mammals on this scale, and once again I felt extremely lucky to have one on my doorstep. South Georgia eat your heart out.
Incredible photos