GREY SEAL
Lundy is lucky in the fact that it has its own breeding colony of grey seals which are resident all through the year. Males or bull seals grow to 2m long and are Britain's largest wild mammals.
The bulls have large roman noses whilst the females or cows have much prettier faces and are smaller. Grey seals can give birth throughout the year but the majority of births occur in the Autumn.
The pups are born with white fur and will stay on the beach or in a cave for the first 3 weeks of their lives. Please do not disturb them and do not worry if they are alone, mum will be watching from the sea. Sometimes the warden will close off a beach to visitors to minimize disturbance to the pups, please respect this.
While waiting for the Oldenburg to come into the Landing Bay, we usually see at least 1 seal watching us. Most of the East side coves and beaches will have seals hauled up on the rocks as the tide falls. When walking the Lower East path, it is not uncommon to see a seal swim past.
Simone and I arrived on the island on the 3rd December 2012. On one of our first days off we went for a walk and ended up on Quarry beach. It had just started to drizzle so we found a bit of shelter under a large rock.
A friend had given us a bottle of homemade sloe gin which we were sampling, when one of the rocks behind us sneezed. About 6m behind us we realised that, what we had mistaken for rocks were 2 seals, a mother and pup. They were so well camouflaged we didn’t see them.
They were not bothered by us being there in the slightest and promptly went to sleep. We, realising that we were much too close, slowly backed away and left them to slumber. I've had picnics up at the North Light where there have been over 50 seals hauled up sunning themselves on the rocks below, but the best place on the island to see seals, in my opinion, is Brazen Ward.
Seals are highly inquisitive and are just as interested in you as you are in them. Brazen was one of our favourite places on Lundy, especially in the summer for a spot of sunbathing and nature watching. As you are walking down the cliff, the seals are watching you and waiting.
It’s a 40 minute march from the village to Brazen, so as soon as we got there, Simone would go in the sea to cool down. The seals would duck down and emerge a short distance away watching her. The longer you stay in, the bolder the seals get and they will sometimes come closer.
Once when Simone was swimming, a young female began to get fairly close, so Simone correctly backed away. The seal followed and so Simone moved further away. The seal followed and so Simone climbed onto a rock. The seal climbed on to the rock next to her and Simone could have stroked it as it was that close. She didn’t obviously as you shouldn’t touch the seals and they have sharp teeth!
