Post the Twenty-Second

Before I say anything else today:  Happy Birthday Aunty Crashen!

And now, moving along...

You're not going to believe this, but...  Weddell Seal!  (!!!)



It was a dark and stormy night...

Actually, that's codswallop.  It was a still but overcast Saturday morning.  The waters off shore were quite glassy, and the overcast was generating some interesting shades of grey (more than 50!) in the skies and on the bergs.

I thought that the bergs might make interesting photographic subjects - not necessarily for this blog, but just generally - so I put on my trusty boots, my trusty coat and my trusty codpiece and headed out with the (untrusty) camera.  And, generally speaking, I was happy with the results.

To exemplify:

This example is exemplary.

There were plenty of penguins around, so I took some photographs of those.  (Why not.  I'm in Antarctica.  It seems de rigeur).  An awful lot of rocks around too.  I took photos of those too.

This next photo has both a penguin and some rocks.

Penguin on the rocks.  Sounds like a drink.

The next rock I took a photo of stopped me in my tracks, however.

Igneous?  Metamorphic?  Sedimentary?  Pinniped?

I think you'd agree that, even in this land of unusual looking rocks, this particular rock looks very, very goshdarned unusual.

I moved around to the side (keeping in mind the mandated approach limits for Antarctic wildlife and rocks) to get a clearer view, and got the shock of my life when the rock opened its eyes and looked at me!

Not a rock!

After a few seconds of thinking that I had discovered a hitherto undescribed species of sighted rock, the obvious finally dawned on me.  This was no moon rock!  It was a space station Weddell Seal!

With a great many attendant exclamation marks I changed my angle to get a better shot.

Still not a rock!

Mnawh!  Snotty nose aside, isn't that cute?

I would hazard a guess that this is a youngster.  Only a guess, because while there are people on the planet who know less about Weddells than I do, they would all fit into Suzuki Mighty Boy.  But it seemed smaller than others that I've seen in pictures.

For a little while it took an interest in me, but then was keen to lie back down and get on with the business of blowing its nose onto the sand.

Staunchly remaining un-rock-ish.

No doubt feeling that, with my camera pointing in its direction, some kind of performance piece was called for, the seal began to urinate.  A lot.

No rock can do this!

Who knew that a Weddell's bladder was so voluminous?

Evidently the Weddell had no idea either, since it was moved to examine its urinary goings-on for itself.

Having a squiz at the whiz.

After its exertions it was time for a rest...

Aaaaaaaaah.

 ...and then a bit of a preen.

Nailbiting stuff.

And at that point I thought it might be a good idea to go and have some breakfast on account of how I was feeling hungry.  And also because my fingers had begun to fall off my hands due to frostbite.

And, just to prove it wasn't a rock, here are a couple of movies of it making noises and moving and, oh, everything!

So, at last!  A Weddell Seal!

So... now I want an orca.  Yep.  I want a photo of an orca next.  That's not too much to ask, is it?