looduskalender.ee

 

 

 

In the beginning of the previous storm the gray seals appeared in the rookery but only for the day. Autumn is fattening-up time, preparing for the winter is done by collecting a layer of fat: adult pinnipeds consume more than 5 kilos of fish per day in autumn. The autumn Baltic herrings gather before spawning in flocks around the shallows, are fat and delicious (fishermen caught such fish in the shallows only with Baltic herring fishing nets).

 

As has been said many times already the males wear dark suits and the ladies preen in dappled furs. The patches on the fur can be seen as the fingerprints of humans – they are unique.

 

Knowing the camera beach it can be deducted that the length of the big, dark and scarred seal bull with the thick neck in the centre may well be three metres, weight three hundred kilos. The ”seal madam” visible at right is also a very large specimen, length up to two metres, weight up to a couple of hundred kilos. Gray seals are the largest mammals in the Baltic.

 

The gray seal females become mature from their third-fourth year of age. The males later,  and will the females then allow them to approach or will the seal bulls scare off the youths from their harem that is jealously guarded? If technology does not break down we will see it in early spring.

 

The gathering on the beach took place during the day, the video is recorded towards evening and in the morning the beach was empty again.

 

The storm winds of September 14^th caused breaks in the power supply, but  the webcam was soon online again.

 

(Published in Estonian 14.09.2014)