A trip to see the seal colony at Ravenscar.

.

Early one morning, during a trip to Yorkshire, I decided to visit the village of Ravenscar in the hope of seeing the resident colony of common seals.

Ravenscar is a strange 'would-be' town. At the start of the 20th century, it was set to become a major holiday destination similar to Whitby and Scarborough, but due to a variety of reasons, including the difficult and steep hill down to the beach, it was a flop and developments were abandoned.

I followed the route down to the beach from Raven Hall and, before long, I could see the sea. The view was beautiful and it was a lovely warm day but, in places, the route was steep and slippery.

I could hear the musical wailing calls of the seals even before the colony came into view. It is easy to see where the myth of sirens and their songs came from.

The tide was in and the colony was a fair way out but I headed down to the base of the cliffs to get a closer look.

I was surprised to see a number of seal pups (already quite grown-up) amongst the rocks close to the cliffs. They look so ungainly on land, but once in water they are such graceful creatures. I made sure not to get too close to the pups as I didn't want to frighten them. If they raise their head and snort, it's a sign to back off. They seemed quite curious by my presence but were not disturbed.

To get a little closer for some images I crouched low and hid behind rocks.

None of these pups were with a mother and people often mistake young seals lying around alone as abandoned and in need of rescue. However, both common and grey seal pups are weaned at around 3-4 weeks old, and at this point, the mother leaves the pup to fend for itself. They are often reluctant to enter the water and may stay on the beach for a couple of weeks until their hunger forces them into the sea to find their own food.

I think I'll call this image, 'Doh!' (Homer Simpson's catchphrase if you weren't sure). You can see proper full-sized versions of these images and more on my website.

I filmed a young seal heading into the water. Not very graceful!

A few years ago I was lucky enough to swim with wild seals in the Scilly Isles and I took my underwater camera. You can see how much more streamlined and acrobatic they are. Seals are very inquisitive and playful and will come up to investigate you if you are in the water with them.

Ravenscar is also interesting from a geological point of view. It is an example of a 'peak fault', with rocks of different ages on opposite sides of the path down to the beach. There are additionally hundreds of fossils visible in the beach rocks, such as this ammonite.

As I climbed back up the hill, I noticed how much the tide had gone out in the couple of hours I had been there, revealing the onion-like structure of the dome that had once existed where Robin Hood's bay now lies.