A trip to Donna Nook

Every year, as nights get longer and Halloween approaches, hundreds of adult Grey Seals head for the long and sheltered beach at Donna Nook, on the Lincolnshire Coast, to pup and mate. The breeding season lasts until the New Year. Today, with the forecast promising a cloudy, but mild day with barely any wind I took the chance of a trip to see them, to put a finale to my Humber centred year.
 I get there at 10:25 and park at the overflow car park (£4, but with portaloos) and walked across the field to the dunes. The eerie calls of the seals can be heard before you see them behind the dunes.

Skylarks chirp over and sing, there are so many about. The fog and mist present most of the drive is now gone and the sun is shining in long spells. I can't believe how mild it is. There are quite a few seals, not as many as in the peak season later in November, but enough to see a lot of behaviour happening.

The characters
To work out what's happening in the long, flat beach you need to be able to identify males (bulls) from females (cows). At the beginning it may be a bit tricky to tell them apart, but a bit of practice will help. In the photo above the bull is in the background and the cow in the foreground, illustrating their differences. The pups are quite obvious, they are much smaller, and when young they are covered on a thick coat of white or yellowish fur (below, a pup right next to the fence).

Bulls
Bulls are much larger than cows, with a thicker neck and usually darker, but as the seals often get covered in mud, colour might not always help. The bull's neck, especially in older individuals, is creased and their muzzles are larger and with a convex profile. A few bull portraits follow. I didn't witness any actual fights between males, just some chases and open mouthed threats, but many males had bloody necks from recent fights. Males slumber most of the time, but show interest in squabbling females. They snort or sneeze, but the most surprising noise is their thumping of the sand with their anterior body, which they lift of the ground and let fall a few times, a deep sound that you can't miss.

Cows
Cows are smaller have a slimmer neck and head than bulls. They appear paler, and can be very spotty.

Despite their smaller size, cows are very feisty and noisy, howling and squabbling with other cows that are too close to their pups and also with males that give them unwanted attention. The following photos are two females squabbling.

Pups
The younger pups (up to 2 weeks) are all white. Newborn pups can look quite skinny, but they quickly fatten up on the rich milk produced by their mums. At about two weeks they start moulting into their adult coat, and after the moult is complete they are weaned and they head to sea on their own.

An older pup starting to moult. The eye and face area start showing the definitive coat colour first.

Yawning pup showing its sharp teeth.

A resting pup.

This pup is likely to be a few hours old. Its umbilical cord hasn't detached yet and it has a strong yellow tinge.

Another young pup.

The plot
Mums and pups. Pregnant cows head to the safety of the beach to give birth.

This cow looked restless, going across the grass from one place to another and often raising her head and looking around. Maybe looking for a suitable spot to give birth?

Pup and mum.

A cow approaches a pup and sniffs it. Cows become imprinted on their pups smell and call after birth and respond and feed only to their pups.

The pups put on weight very quickly, gorging on a milk that is more than 50% fat. They call their mums when they are hungry and the mums often engage in scratching bouts with them.

Cows and bulls. Cows become receptive a couple of weeks after pupping, and that's the reason bulls are on the beach. They are just waiting, next to the females, for them to be receptive. 'Just waiting' is a massive understatement: bulls are often fighting each other for the positions in the beach next to females: their bloodied necks are witness to this. Older individuals are the ones that are going to get most matings, while the younger bulls are quite mobile, searching for mating opportunities on the edges of the beach, or occasionally challenging a resident bull. Adults won't feed for the few weeks they are on the beach, and as soon as the females are mated, they will head back to sea. I saw no matings, but some females approached slumbering males, sniffing them.

Scavengers
The beach has many scavengers about. They are looking for afterbirths (placentas) near the newborn seals. They won't turn their eye to the occasional dead pup too. Magpies, Carrion Crows (above), Great Black-backed gulls and Herring Gulls were about today. As I scanned the marsh for birds I spotted a Hooded Crow! I was pretty excited - it was my first English Hooded Crow. I tried to convey my excitement to the other seal watchers but to no avail, there was no enthusiasm whatsoever!

Magpie also walking along seals.

The Hooded Crow. 

Hooded Crow and seal.

Great Black-back gull.

The waves break and roar in the distance as the tide comes in. A few seals near the breakers.

I walk to the end of the seal area and look back. A colourful line of people behind the fence separating the seal from the onlookers.

On the saltmarsh, near the high tide a large flock of Brent Goose feeding, with a few shelduck.

The day is short and it's time to head back. Another very exciting day with the seals. I have made a video with clips filmed today.

Donna Nook Seals

It's a bright, mild autumn day. As planned, we set out for Donna Nook, the seal rookery in the Lincolnshire coast, near North Somercotes. We get there after getting to Horseshoe Point in mistake (flushing a pair of kestrels in the way) about 11:30.
The colours of the autumn make this trip just worth it. Donna Nook is a stretch of low-lying sandy coast on the south bank of the mouth of the Humber, with dunes covered in sea buckthorn and marshes. It is a RAF shooting range, but, apparently, operations do not seem to disturb the seals. The area is protected as it is a grey seal breeding ground during November and December. There are lots of people today, the overflow car park is quite busy.
We can hear the howling of the seals from behind the artificial sea wall, actually a barrier of sand covered in grasses and sea buckthorn. Their calls are high pitched, ululating cries such as ones somebody would make to scare you ooh,ooh ooh! There are many seals, scattered on the beach. The visibility is very good and we can see the Spurn lighthouse and the wind turbines of Easington in the low horizon on the north.
Two bulls threaten each other, open mouthed, on the dunes over a female.

One of them approaches the female, but she threatens him and he stays put.

The bulls have cuts and blood around their scarred necks. Bulls are larger than cows and tend to be darker, chocolate coloured, with lighter patches; cows are grey or tawny, with darker spots and blotches, although there is a lot of individual variation. Males and females have very different looking heads. Bulls have bigger muzzles and have a convex profile, the females have an almost flat profile, with a long muzzle. The pups are creamy white, skinny when newborn, but they turn quite round when a few days old (they are weaned at two to three weeks old, and after moulting their coats go to sea).

We watched a female and her pup at close range. She nuzzled the pup and then rolled (ouch!) over him, seemingly keen for the pup to nurse, presenting him her belly and then scratching him when the pup reached for her muzzle. They also seem to play together, mock biting and scratching each other.

It is a great day out to see the seals. Real animal behaviour happening right in front of you: bulls chasing and measuring each other up, females fighting them, females interacting with their pups, pups nursing, pups and their mums resting and particularly pups, rolling and 'hand-waving', stretching and just, seemingly enjoying their newly found life on the sand. This one is fanning its flippers:

Evidence of the births the previous night is clear. There are two afterbirths on the sand in the next photo. The rear of the females is still covered in blood and the newborn has its umbilical cord attached.

A dead pup on the beach, half eaten. A Magpie walking around looking for fragments of placenta.
The Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust does a great job keeping the public behind a weak wooden (now double) fence, to reduce impact and contact with the seals, and there is up to date info in the warden's hut on the numbers of seals in the beach: 477 pups have been born so far this year (over a thousand last year). This is a UK wildlife safari at its best!

The following is from the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust website, which contains maps and info on the reserve and the seals.

Monday 17 November.

285 bulls, 673 cows, 477 pups.

With an estimate of between 9,000 and 10,000 visitors over the weekend.