The last two days we have been doing bird surveys around the island, looking for feeding and nesting birds. We go out in the boat and watch where they go with food for their chicks and make note of the nests.

While doing this today we saw something quite incredible. There were many seals in the water and on the beach. There are a lot of seal pups now since it is the season for that. We noticed a large seal struggle to get onto the beach and did not think too much about it. We continued watching the birds and someone said “OMG… that seal is giving birth!”. We immediately all focused on the joyous event, and I got to see the last part of the birth. About 15 minutes later, we saw it take its first swim. That was really something to witness that occurring, and I would think that not many people get to see that happen.

Just one more cool thing I have been fortunate enough to be involved with on the refuge.