Can you see her? I almost missed her myself. There’s a little seal sitting on the float of this dock in the back on the left. Seals are so very elusive and it so difficult to film one. I can hardly believe my luck in getting this picture. Not only that, but she ventured out a bit and even bobbed her head up and down at me!
Seals love to sun themselves, of course, and you can find
them doing that everywhere on rocky outcrops along the less accessible beaches
of Maine. They usually sun together in groups, though,
and not singly and in the same place like this little one is doing. This float belongs to an old lobsterman on
Orr’s Island, and he told me that the seal has
been coming and sunning herself on his dock for three days now. He threw her a couple of fish in case she was
hungry, but she was not desperate as there is plenty in the ocean.
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| There's a little seal in the back on the left. |
She clearly became interested in me. I thought for sure I would scare her away,
but instead she peaked out even further.
I should probably not be surprised that a Selkie would find her way to
me (or perhaps it’s the other way around) after the encounters with the Good
Folk that I have had in these woods of Maine, but it’s always refreshing to
know that the magic of Maine is everywhere--on land and in the sea.
Legends say that if a female Selkie sheds her skin and comes
on land, she will become human, and if a human male finds her skin, the Selkie
will become an excellent wife to him.
However, she will always long for the sea, and if she finds her skin,
she will immediately return to the sea.
If she has children with the human and then goes back to the sea, she
will come back near the shore to play with the children in the shallows.
Perhaps that is exactly what this little seal was doing when
I found her. One thing I know for
certain, I have never gotten this close to a seal or had one so interested in
me and so unafraid before. I believe
that magic is afoot!
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| The Selkie bobs her head up and poses! |
