“ON A STINGINGLY COLD DAY, at the teeming grey seal breeding colony at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire, I’m waiting near an immensely pregnant cow seal, hoping to witness my first birth. Throughout my round-Britain journey, researching grey seals’ lives, I’ve had manynear misses, turning up as a newborn’s starting to suckle or as great black-backed gulls screech in to tussle over the placenta.
