Phocidae pockle on a Wednesday morning. 23 August 2023

 

Cross Island, John’s Island, Old Lighthouse Island or Bird Island.  Take you pick! 
It is one of the two outer Copeland Islands, the one without the lighthouse (that is Mew Island), and is home to Copeland Bird Observatory (and many memories).

Susie’s cousin Claire is over visiting and so a short excursion on Lazaway was called for - who needs an excuse?!  Fortunately the weather was very kind with warm light SW winds and plenty of sun.

Susie, Mary and Claire.  The new staff uniforms are looking good!

With time constraints meaning a longer trip was not on the cards we decided to do a loop of the outer Copelands.   And as we have done before we called into the north end of the channel between Mew and Old Lighthouse Islands.  The many Puffins that we have seen here previously are now all gone - they have left the colony and will now be out at sea - but we were rewarded with quite a large number of seals - 40 - 50 animals.  They were mostly Grey Seals, though it is likely that there were some Harbour Seals (distance and not having my good bins meant I wasn’t certain).

Distant pictures of some of the Grey Seals on Mew Island.  
Grey Seal, Halichoerus grypus, is the “hook-nosed sea pig”,
and a member of the Phocidae family, commonly referred
to as “true seals” or “earless seals”. 

After seeing the seals we headed round the outside of Mew in the hope of encountering some cetaceans - Harbour Porpoises love the tidal currents that meet just beyond Mew.  But not today.  We did get some nice views of the islands.

Old Lighthouse Island on left, and Mew Island on right.

Mew Island with its very own weather system above.

After coffee and an hour and a half we headed home.  
It all felt very civilised.

Our route:


























































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