Donna Nook is located on the East Coast of Lincolnshire covering more than 10km of coastline between Grainthorpe Haven and Saltfleet. As it hits November, it becomes home to a colony of grey seals, who congregate here to give birth to their pups and breed in preparation for next season. For years, the Ministry of Defence have used Donna Nook as a firing practice area and in the 70s, the Ministry of Defence began protecting the seals – putting barriers up to assist them in pupping peacefully. As the colony has grown stronger, Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust’s wardens have acted as guardians, ensuring the seal populations safety. Jasmine and I had the pleasure of accompanying Ruth, Outer Humber & Coast Assistant Warden, and the Volunteer Seal Wardens at Donna Nook, where we learnt a little more about the reserve and the amazing seal population that gathers here.

The viewing area is open to the public between October and December, allowing people to watch the seals from a safe distance. Keeping a distance from the seals here is incredibly important for both their safety and ours. The seals at Donna Nook are wild, and can deliver a nasty bite. Adult seals can be particularly territorial and protective during pupping season too, which can lead to aggression. Alongside this, a mother seal may abandon her pup if it smells of humans and the pup will no longer be able to feed, so contact is strictly prohibited.

During the time Jasmine and I visited Donna Nook, the ‘pup count’ was sitting at around 1300. In total there have been an amazing 2200 pups born over the last two months. It was such a wonderful time to visit the reserve, as many of the pups were old enough to begin playing together and investigating the pools of water on the reserve. Many of the pups had started practicing their underwater breathing skills, holding their breath and blowing bubbles (which was particularly cute to watch).

It was also great to meet members of the public, some of which had travelled several hours to visit the reserve. I thoroughly enjoyed answering all their seal-focused questions, and I was thankful to the Seal Wardens for passing their knowledge onto me so that I could inform the public to the best of my ability! One of the most interesting things I discovered about these animals, is their ability to undergo an embryonic diapause: the temporary delay of embryo development.  Mother seals will breed shortly after they have weaned their pups, before heading back out to sea to feed, regain their strength and build up their fat reserves. The embryonic diapause, lasting about 100 days, allows the mother seal to do all of this without expending energy on embryo development, instead waiting until she is fit and healthy enough to bear young again.

During our time at Donna Nook, we also had the opportunity to help out in the shop, where they have lots of lovely seal-oriented gifts. It was lovely to be able to talk to the customers and see them leave with tokens that will remind them of their visit to the reserve.