It may have been a little overcast this week, with the visibility drifting between murky and thick fog, but our grey seal pups are as entertaining as ever. Sunday morning was a real ‘pea-souper’ (a strictly nautical term for visibility under 100m!) We were wondering if our visitors were really going to see very much. But then, just half an hour before our boat was due to land two pups were born in the harbour, just below our boatshed.
The high tide meant the pregnant cows were forced to give birth virtually on top of each other and both pups were delivered within ten minutes. Our visitors landed to see the newborns, still bloody, making their first clumsy movements on the pebbles, the cows deliver the afterbirth and then the pups attempt to take their first milk from the attendant mothers. An amazing privilege for everyone and all within 3 metres of the footpath.
5 days on the pups are growing fast and can often be seen lying on top of each other and seemingly having a good giggle! Probably amused by all the strange humans looking at them over the fence!
All of Ramsey’s beaches are crammed with pups at this time of year, with our most important pupping beaches at Aber Mawr and Porth Lleuog holding 50 and 20 pups respectively today. In fact every available space is currently occupied by pups and cows. Pups will continue to be born on Ramsey for the next couple of months and the haul-out of males at Foel Fawr currently numbers just under 100 animals.
Boats run to Ramsey until the end of October, so there is still plenty of time to visit one of the most important grey seal breeding sites outside of Scotland.