For the start of National Marine Week, I thought I’d share an image from my most recent, and completely unexpected, grey seal encounter.
For a bit of background information, I should probably explain that I feel like I spend a good proportion of my life scanning the sea/rivers/trees/the sky for signs of wildlife. This has led to many minor injuries as I inevitably end up tripping over my own feet! I usually catch a glimpse of something really exciting, only to find out that it’s an odd-shaped branch in a tree or a rock in the water. So I nearly fell off the rock I was sitting on when I looked out across the Clyde at Lunderston Bay and saw a dark shape that turned out to be the face of a grey seal. I had been photographing wading birds on the shore of the bay when a shape caught the corner of my eye. I turned and pointed my 80-400mm lens out to the water and there it was. I was in the fortunate position of already being quite close to the water on the rock I had been sitting on, but I couldn’t resist trying to get a better view and ended up sloshing into ankle-deep water so I could sit on a rock in a better position. I was glad to be wearing my oldest pair of trainers as they flooded with water. It’s funny that my comfort tends to go completely out of the window when I’m photographing wildlife. I was so happy to see that seal that I couldn’t have cared less about having soaking wet feet and jeans until we got home. Who cares, right?
Anyway, I was able to sit on that rock, with my feet in a deep pool of water, watching and photographing that seal for around 30 minutes before it finally disappeared. Because we were on the shore and it was in the water, it was completely relaxed and spent most of the time bottling – This is when they bob around vertically in the water, resting with just their head above the surface.
The images from that afternoon aren’t great – it was drizzling pretty constantly and there wasn’t much light to speak of – but I can’t describe how grateful I am for the encounter. I hope this story provides some motivation – yes, 99% of the time your potential seal will be a rock, but keep looking and one day you’ll get lucky!
If you want to get involved in National Marine Week, The Wildlife Trusts’ nationwide celebration of all things marine, there’s plenty of time as it’s actually longer than a week, running from today until the 9th August.