Today Racheal talked me into driving down to Horsey beach on the Norfolk coast to see how the seals are doing with their pups. It was a beautiful November afternoon, albeit a little bit cold, and when we arrived, quite a few people viewed the pups from the controlled barrier at the top of the dunes.
We set our cameras up on tripods and started filming the seals and pups moving around on the beach. I must say that there are many more pups here than there were a few weeks ago, and it was nice to see that everybody respected their space.
Lots of pups with their mum
We filmed one or two seals moving around the beach and some pups, but then we saw something unique. One of the seals looked like her body was contracting. We are no experts, but it did look like she was about to give birth.
We trained the camera onto the mother seal and stood patiently watching the seal go through her labour; in surprisingly quick time, it was clear that she would give birth to a new Pup.
A pup is born
Here you can see some of the video footage we took while watching the seals and pups together. Please note that all of the footage we captured was filmed with a strong telephoto lens, and we never moved past the controlled fence at the top of the beach dunes.
We hope you enjoy the mini-movies.
