Day 24, midmorning . . . fog reduced visibility to half mile or less along the beach and tower, and given my dose of Christian upbringing, I hoped I would tell a resurrection story, but alas, as I got close,
Le Papillon still rode the swells of sand,
Moving on beach billows gets one nowhere, and I prepared to head off the beach, until I noticed
beyond the crowd, an unusual visitor, who
inspected the starboard hull, moving and then lying a long period,
ear to the ground, seeming to divine–or attempt to–
It ambled around the stranded ocean voyager, conjecturing and
follow it seaward. All my ears could tell was that seal encouragement was ignored by the schooner just as much as human encouragement was convincing this seal to return to the water.
More seriously, the seal is believed to be a juvenile male gray seal, about four months old, healthy though tired, which would–if left unmolested–return to its watery realm.
Yes, I took these fotos with a zoom and avoided interfering with a marine mammal.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp on Easter, 2011. Click here to see how saltaire38 ties this seal to a Fire Island tradition.
6 comments
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April 24, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Dennis Willard
happy easter . . .
why does she seem to be in somewhat better shape than she was in on your last visit ?
April 24, 2011 at 1:59 pm
michael bogoger
Le Papillon is riding higher. For a while she looked like she would disappear. When you first posted about her, I got the impression she was somewhere remote, but access is good. Why hasn’t someone put a big winch on her while the tide is up? If she were just a bit higher, she wouldn’t get such a pounding. If this had happened here in the Pacific Northwest, some hardy (foolhardy?) fellows would have done something by now and I would be one of them.
That seal has you in his telephoto, too. What a scamp!
doryman
April 24, 2011 at 5:12 pm
cookie
Looks like a beautiful Easter day on the coast once the fog burned off. Agreed, I like how the seal was eyeing you from a distance.
April 24, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Judy Knape
Happy Easter! So sad to see the pictures of LePapillon. I imagine she must have a lot of sand and water inside which would make recovery very difficult. The seal is really sweet – didn’t know you had them in your neighborhood.
April 24, 2011 at 5:50 pm
tugster
hi judy . . happy easter. scroll thru for seal viewing info in the greater sandy hook area. http://www.animaltourism.com/animals/seal.htm Here’s more . . . http://www.njmsc.org/education/Lesson_Plans/Key/Seals.pdf
April 25, 2011 at 9:13 am
TIM Robison
Since it appears no salvage, She will be a great photographic subject for a while. If she is still there – I wonder how she will far in the winter storms? Great pictures and documentary …