The Day I said Hello to an Elephant Seal

                                          

                                            ***UPDATE***
This Elephant seal is very much female, and has given birth today (24 September), to a cute wee pup, so yay! It was on the news tonight, so I might have to go down to the beach tomorrow and have a gander!


This Southern Elephant seal has been at the beach for about a week, so Mario & I went to visit it & get some photos.
It was looking quite comfy there, but Mario kept making strange noises to get its attention - I told him to stop harassing it!
I'm not sure if it's a male or female, but apparently the females come ashore to give birth, so that's a possibility. Or it could just be resting.
There's an interesting site here that has a lot of information on them.

The extra photo shows the fin close up.

I haven't seen the surgeon yet. He's running late, so I have a later appointment.