Seal watching

They look so happy when sleeping! Since it's a tidal river, it's a very easy place for them to feed. The fish go up and down with the tides, so they just wait for the right moment and dive in with open mouths. This is a sanctuary but I don't think seals are very afraid of humans outside them either. Not sure how they are when there's hunting. Walruses shy away if they've been hunted once, or just attack, depending on how big they are. These seals won't really have met any predators on land for quite some time, if ever in that habitat (except us). I think it would have been to wet for the predators that used to roam Britain, so the seals might just be careful when they're out in the water. And possibly even further out, it's too shallow for sharks etc. So it's probably one of those places where we can meet without being worried about much.

@crazyhorseladycx The males will fight over territory and women I suppose, like males of many other species. They have quite sharp teeth, so they'd be bound to get some scrapes from eachother. They'll also fight eachother for the warmest spot in the river, or they might fight with the other seal species there. Not a lot of them, but much bigger. England back in the days would have had wolves, bears, lynx and wild cats. Not sure the lynx would go this far south though, the wolves and bears don't really frequent swamp land and a wild cat wouldn't stand a chance against a seal. British Columbia sounds like a great place! If there's seals, there's always someone to hang out with

@Torunn most definitely! yepperz, who's not fond 'f rest, relaxation, beautiful beach 'n easy meals? the one'n the right seems to've some scars 'bout 'ts sweet face. either predator, territorial 'r battle fer breedin'? i confess to not knowin' much 'bout these beautiful critters. not many 'round these parts (new mexico) nor from back'n the hills (middle tennessee). don't reckon i'd wish to be 'round a grumpy walrus 's i've heard they can get mighty cranky. move much quicker'n one'd imagine, too. sharks'n perhaps whales'd be predators fer these lil darlin's i'm thinkin'. not sure 'f what land predators the area would've 'd back'n the day? i'm so glad they've a haven though, free from man's wrath 'n wickedness. hopefully anyhow. if'n i e'er make 't to my friends place'n british columbia, they've seals 'n all sorts 'f other critters livin' there. she's worried 'bout keepin' me entertained, lol. i could sit'n a rock all day 'n take thousands 'f pics. 't least 'til a bear came 'round'n asked me to move, lol.

@moffittjc Yes, the portions were generous. My English friend ordered pancakes every morning, but somehow always forgot that she wanted the small stack so I got half of it every day. The medium stack was more than enough for two :-) I've got no idea how anyone would manage to eat a large stack on their own, and I'm a fairly hungry person. I'm a physicist. We always get smartly drunk

@Torunn Wait...your petrol prices are cheaper than ours?

@Torunn One thing us Americans seem to be famous for is the size of our portions in our meals. And we wonder why the obesity rate is so high in this country! lol So you're saying you didn't get stupidly drunk. Does that mean you got smartly drunk? haha

It was great! The captain of the RIB was also great, he knew a lot about the seals so in addition to getting soaking wet we got educated as well

@JudyEv He had participated in an documentary about seals which should be available on BBC about know, so he knew a lot about seals. I might try to find the documentary, not sure how easy it is when I'm not in the UK

@Torunn I always enjoy learning stuff when I'm out and about.

Thanks :-) If you want to see wildlife, London's not the worse place to start. Which is weird, since it's a pretty big city. But lots of wildlife in it, and not too far outside it.

@thelme55 Yes, there's a zoo. Or maybe two? Hmm, might be one zoo in two different places, I was there years ago. The seals I saw are just outside London, an hour with train and then we went on boat-trip. But I've been bird-watching in London, there's a big and quite central nature reservation

@Torunn I think that was where my brother-in-law and my nephew went when my sister and I were in the Shard. They have said that they have seen wild animals in a zoo.

@porwest Then you should be fine! :-) It wasn't even very rough sea, I would have been fine on a normal boat looking forward but when we were travelling we were stuck inside in some sort of catamaran.

I've loved the ones I've been on, except the time I was really, really boat-sick on a whale safari in New Zealand. I do like some of the safari zoos though, if they're properly kept it's better than many "normal" zoos and sadly, zoos are getting more and more vital to keep animal species alive.

@Torunn Not sure I'd be boat sick. But I am ex Navy. We sail on boats, you know.

You don't have to go far to make one yourself. I spent 4 hours in London before we took the train, looking at birds, squirrels etc.

@Torunn If you're right, you can make a homemade safari with a couple of hours away from home.

@Aleskys It's much cheaper than going far into the jungle or something like that. I'm going to go looking for moose at some point, it's about 15-20 minutes away with car.

I went on a whale watching trip on Iceland once, we saw dolphins and lot of different birds and one whale, very very far away. Great trip anyway. The whale watching trip on New Zealand just made me sea-sick, but we did see 4 whales.

Yes, dogs will also follow you to try to figure out what you're doing. Horses too (at least mine)

My mother used to take my brother and me to a safari park in Austria when we were on holiday years ago. What I remember the most isn't the animals but the smell of cheap petrol from the buses from Eastern Europe. They really stank.

Lot of different trips in different countries, haven't been on a moose safari her yet but I might go

@Torunn that's really nice