UPY 2025

UPY 2018 British Waters Compact - Winner
'Scratchy Seal'
Vicky Paynter

I had a free weekend so took-up a last minute space on our club trip to The Farne Islands. The Farne Islands are home to thousands of grey seals (also known as Atlantic seals), and each autumn hundreds of pups are born here. We’d arrived just before then but there were still plenty of younger seals keen to interact and explore these strange bubbling divers. This picture was taken on the 2nd dive of the day, when my 2 buddies acted as seal magnets and we had some glorious encounters.

This seal obviously had an itch to scratch, as at one point he lay on his back waiting for his belly to be rubbed and as we were leaving him he was giving his tail a good scratch, pulling some interesting shapes in the process and which must have led to the satisfied grin he appears to be sporting!

Judge's comment: A very well executed image in the British Waters compact category. The lighting, focus and composition are very well done. I'm drawn to the reflection on the back of this seal. A worthy winner. Martin Edge