Cuteness on the Rocks

Monday, March 16, 2020,

Time for some nearly unbearable cuteness. I took these photos back in January but I was unable to post them here at that time. Joe Kayaker was down due to technical problems that I needed outside help to fix. (Thank you Mike.) This is a young Harbor Seal I found in Westhampton. For anyone interested, a framed version of the above photo will be available as a raffle prize at this year’s Taps and Talons Festival at the Sweetbriar Nature Center on September 20, 2020. JK 

JK

The Elusive Tiger Seal

Thursday, March 12, 2020,

You’ve heard of Sea Lions in the Pacific Ocean and Leopard Seals in the waters surrounding Antarctica. Now meet the fearsome Tiger Seal. The terror of fish everywhere, yet notoriously camera shy, the Atlantic Tiger Seal has never been photographed prior to this encounter.
Or perhaps this is just an ordinary Harbor Seal whose fur just happens to be drying in an interesting pattern. 🙂  JK

Seal Watching With Old Friends and New

Monday, January 27, 2020,

After a five week hiatus, Joe Kayaker is back. I was not away on vacation or anything fun like that. I had merely – well, maybe not so merely – screwed up my website and I was unable to figure out how to fix it. Kudos to my friend Mike who was able to restore Joe Kayaker to its former self. Now, being unable to publish anything new did not mean I stopped taking photographs. I’ve got some catching up to do.

These photographs were taken on December 23 of last year. I had driven out to Cupsogue Beach in Westhampton to look for seals. Cupsogue is one of my favorite places on Long Island to look for Harbor Seals. I found the seals and, while I was there, I ran into two old friends and made two new ones. We had all come to Cupsogue Beach for the same reason. None of us arrived together, nor did any of us have plans to meet there. We were all drawn by the seals, like moths to a flame. Aside from my two previous friends, Bill and Raina, we were all pretty much strangers to each other but we all share a love of wildlife photography. Even Bill and Raina were mostly unknown to each other but all four of us were somewhat acquainted with one another because we all post our photographs to some of the same Facebook groups. It’s always nice to put faces to the names. JK

JK