At this time of year most of our local grey seals are on the Farne Islands. They go there for the females to give birth in November and for the bulls to establish a territory on the beach and recruit a harem. Last year over 2,700 pups were born and the grey seal population was almost 10,000.
Grey seals don't breed until they are at least four years old so some of the younger adults don't trouble to go to the Farnes. A few stay around St Mary's Island at Whitley Bay and last weekend seven were hauled out at low tide for a spot of sunbathing (in a temperature of 3℃). In fact they usually don't haul out but swim to the rocks at high tide and stay there as the water recedes, refloating on the next high tide. I walked over to the island (which isn't an island at low tide) to see them. There were six females and one bull, apparently asleep most of the time. This is the bull.
This is a female. Colours vary greatly in "grey" seals.
This photo shows the size difference between male and female. Bulls weigh 170-310kg while females are 100-190kg.
If they were sleeping it was a fairly fitful sleep as there was a lot of yawning, stretching and scratching going on.
Although grey seals are gregarious they aren't very sociable and like to keep a space around them. One female got a bit close to the bull which led to a bit of snarling.
One of the females had injuries on her chest and flipper, possibly from sharp rocks or fishing gear.
Many of them had scars.
Watching them is great fun and they often seem to produce almost human gestures and expressions.
There were two more seals in the water. One of them made an attempt to get out, trying to use the waves to heave itself up onto the rocks but after a few minutes it gave up and returned to the sea.
Grey seals don't breed until they are at least four years old so some of the younger adults don't trouble to go to the Farnes. A few stay around St Mary's Island at Whitley Bay and last weekend seven were hauled out at low tide for a spot of sunbathing (in a temperature of 3℃). In fact they usually don't haul out but swim to the rocks at high tide and stay there as the water recedes, refloating on the next high tide. I walked over to the island (which isn't an island at low tide) to see them. There were six females and one bull, apparently asleep most of the time. This is the bull.
This is a female. Colours vary greatly in "grey" seals.
This photo shows the size difference between male and female. Bulls weigh 170-310kg while females are 100-190kg.
If they were sleeping it was a fairly fitful sleep as there was a lot of yawning, stretching and scratching going on.
Although grey seals are gregarious they aren't very sociable and like to keep a space around them. One female got a bit close to the bull which led to a bit of snarling.
One of the females had injuries on her chest and flipper, possibly from sharp rocks or fishing gear.
Many of them had scars.
Watching them is great fun and they often seem to produce almost human gestures and expressions.
There were two more seals in the water. One of them made an attempt to get out, trying to use the waves to heave itself up onto the rocks but after a few minutes it gave up and returned to the sea.
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