Country diary: the awkward teenagers of the seal world

Windwick, Orkney: At first I felt a flash of horror - there were bodies strewn over rocks and rotting heaps of kelpIn the bleak midwinter, Orkney is surprisingly busy with wildlife. Starlings murmurate over the old Stromness pier every night before flying down to roost in its struts. Geese gather in their hundreds in the hollows between hills. And, down by the water's edge, seals have been hauling out on to the rocky strands to give birth.A few weeks ago we visited Windwick, South Ronaldsay, to see this year's crop of pups: the foreshore was crowded with cow seals feeding their fluffy, wet-eyed babies. One or two bulls waited in the shallows nearby, rising and falling with the waves, or seen in silhouette like submarines. Continue reading...