Wild weather

It was a battle to even get to the cliff tops on Sunday as the north coast was hit with force 7, gusting force 8 northerly winds. Standing by the cliff edge felt unsafe as the strongest gusts of wind swirled unpredictably from every direction. Out in the force 8 sea, the wave crests were breaking into spindrift, with the foam created blown into well marked streaks along the direction of the wind. As the waves crashed into the cove, they reared up through the narrow channels and smashed across the wave cut platform spraying a million foamy bubbles. The whole cove was boiling with white water, making access to the beach tough and treacherous. Not surprisingly the haulout was small, but 6 brave seals had made it up the beach. A small silvery velvet weaner was safely sheltering at the back of the horseshoe, whilst 2 of the biggest males were hauled out in the middle of the beach, apparently unaware of anything out of the normal. Black Rabbit - a young and pretty female seal was lying on the boulder beach surrounded by frosted peaks of foam, making her progress even more slippy than usual. Occasionally the foam bubbles were whipped up by the wind, only to swirl wildly around her and then up towards the cliffs, giving the cove a blizzard like appearance. Despite the image stabiliser, I was barely able to keep the camera still enough to film and as I was only able to identify 1 seal, I soon packed up and headed home!