Relaxed Sunday

Bull Seal looking menacing

 

Inquisitive Seals

Its Sunday morning on the Brownsman and there is a relaxed atmosphere around the island, as the Seals are happily getting on with the day to day life and the Autumnwatch team are stirring for another day on the 'rock'.

The north beach has welcomed four new arrivals overnight, bringing the numbers to nineteen whilst nearby Staple Island has increased to forty-one. The colonies are still a few weeks away from peak season and we'll expect somewhere in the region of 150 and 300 pups on these two respective islands. As for our characters, Lucky is growing strong with its attentive mum, whilst Nemo snuggles into the rocky shoreline but still looks underweight.  

However it was the female at the centre of the controversy with the quadruplets, which caught our attention again, as she was back at it, but this time with another different pup, a newly born. Her odd behaviour has got us and nodoubt other cow seals very puzzled and her aggressive stance towards all others may have something to do with it. It may also be the reason why Nemo is underweight - has she being chasing Nemo's mother away? So many questions. Regardless, this free milk offering can not be turned down and even Nemo looked interested... 

The easterly winds continue to dominate and the big seal count across all the colonies is cancelled due to the difficult landing conditions on other islands, but this won't prevent us in the long term. Bird passage continues through the islands as a Little Grebe is discovered - only our sixth ever record!! although three Waxwings brighten things up as they move west to winter in the UK (watch out for those in your gardens!).

Otherwise all quiet on the ten acre island as we head into the final week of Autumnwatch, what will happen to the north colony pups? Will Nemo find his mum for that precious milk, will storms lash the islands again and what about those brute bull Seals which have just started to appear... all will be revealed.