<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/seal-pupnov14.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2195" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/seal-pupnov14-300x225.jpg" alt="seal-pup(nov14)" width="300" height="225" /></a>We've been promising ourselves that we would go to <a title="Donna Nook National Nature Reserve" href="http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/donna-nook" target="_blank">Donna Nook</a> to see the seals and so on Monday morning, despite the frosty conditions, we set off for the coast.

We arrived just before 10 am and the car park was almost full so we were glad we'd taken the advice of others and aimed to get there early(ish). We were not to be disappointed as there were literally hundreds of seals with their new-born pups all looking very cute and close to the public access areas. The pups are weaned off after about 18 days and they soon lose their small cuteness and become bloaters. Their mums are very attentive if a little lethargic but then so would we be if we didn't eat for 5 or 6 weeks whilst giving birth and weaning a voracious pup.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gull-with-placentanov14.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2194 alignright" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/gull-with-placentanov14-200x150.jpg" alt="gull-with-placenta(nov14)" width="200" height="150" /></a>Of course there are always scavengers ready to grab an easy meal as this seagull was pulling on a piece of placenta - nice. Despite the openness of the beach 90% of the pups survive this period of their lives and make it off the beach however only 60% see their first birthday. These are big mammals and can live up to 35 years always returning to the same beach to give birth and shortly afterwards the females come into season and mate again ready for next year.

<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/chinooknov14.jpg"><img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-2196 alignleft" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/chinooknov14-200x150.jpg" alt="chinook(nov14)" width="200" height="150" /></a>Donna Nook is next to a <a title="RAF Donna Nook" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Donna_Nook" target="_blank">RAF station</a> so we shouldn't have been surprised to see a Chinook coming into land then taking to the air again and hovering out at sea for over 30 minutes. Goodness knows how much one of these things costs to run per hour (£24k - I've Googled it) but all I could think of was that <strong>we</strong> were paying for it and wouldn't the NHS be better served by having the money, particularly as air ambulance services are run as charities. What's that all about?