Hatching and matching

As I peered down from the cliff top, snorts, grunts and growls alerted me to the presence of seals 150 feet below. Each year a few females use the tiny beach behind this cove to birth their pups while  males - putative or hopeful  fathers -  hang around in the water waiting to mate, and fighting off competitors. A noisy business, both.

I couldn't see whether there was a pup, nor could I hear one. The cove makes a safe nursery, beyond the reach of humans and dogs - but not of the waves which sometimes sweep in and wash the pups away - a cruel dispatching. They need to spend one month on land building up enough fat from their mothers' super-rich milk to survive in the sea.