Sealed and delivered

Thanks to everyone who sympathised and commiserated over yesterday's duck tragedy. The wounded survivor still lives and even took some water this evening, holed up in the hen house. I have made half a dozen phone calls to see if any group or organisation is recording mink activity, but so far without success.

On a happier note my visit to seal cove this afternoon revealed no less that four new pups on the shingle along with three adults and another in the water. Images here. One of the adults is very large and dark and might be a male. The newest babies have pure white fluffy coats which gradually darken as they acquire the smooth mottled pelts of maturity.

Infant seals so rapidly put on weight from their mothers' super-rich milk that they appear to be swaddled in their own fat, yet still able to wriggle their roly-poly bodies over the stones to reach their mothers. Their plaintive cries and wails can be clearly heard as you approach the cliff edge.

Another seal baby at the bottom of the world

While searching for that image of swaddled babies I was amused then slightly alarmed to come across this one which purports to be something to help small children celebrate the arrival of a younger sibling... by biting its head off mink-style?