Wally the Walrus at Tenby

On Monday 17th May, after lunch, disappointed that I had missed the Walrus the previous day, after lunch I checked Bird Guides and it said the Walrus was back at Pembrokeshire, so guessing it was back at Tenby, I leapt in the car and drove back to Tenby parking again at the multi- storey car park again putting 4 hours in on the ticket machine. Wally the Walrus has become a bit of a media celebrity since he took up almost permanent residence at Tenby. First seen off County Kerry, Ireland in early March, he had continued his journey south ending up at Tenby, Pembrokeshore in South Wales on 19th March. He made his way south, being naturally curious, either to find food or mate (wrong direction, obviously for that!) There had even been a theory that he had drifted south on an iceberg! Probably immature wanderings as vagrancy in birds often have young birds wandering way of the normal range, this was the Wally the Walrus equivalent! Wally is often seen sleeping or basking on the RNLI slipway which had become a bit of a headache for the lifecrew who had to resort to spraying him with water and using klaxons to flush him off the slipway so they could launch the lifeboat! I hobbled back to the cliff top walk, as I walked down an encouraging crowd of around 50 people could be seen on the railings and raising my bins in the brilliant sunshine, a pale buff large lump at thge end of the RNLI slipway proved to be the absolutely fantastic immature male Walrus! About the size of a large cow, he had 3 inch tusks indicating his immaturity. He was slumped down asleep on the seaward end of the slipway near the water the head down on the slipway fast asleep. A few Black- headed Gulls were around and woke him up, he raised his head and showed the 9 inch or so tusks. He had a fat blubbery body reddish brown in colouration with and facially he had small eyes, a whiskery 'moustachle' white tusks about 9 inches long and substantital front flippers and slightly smaller back flippers. A fine creature! Several times he would ocasionally grin showing his gum line! He has been feeding on Razor Clams and Shellfish in the bay which were formerly plentiful but it is though that on Sunday he wasn't prsent because he was feeding further out to sea. I took over a thousand pics!!! He rose up and eased himself with his flippers before lying down again. He rolled on his back with his flippers in the air, he was actually sunbathing, enjoying the sun! He occasionally "stood up" then slumped again on his back again sunbathing. Occasionally he would put his flipper over his eyes/ head. Finally, an RNLI man came down and started spraying him with a hose of water that arked up and fell on the body of the sunbathing 'Wally' who got up again on his haunches but he wasn't moving. After about 20 minutes of his impromtu shower, the RNLI man swapped the hose for a metal post and started tapping it on the slipway, again no movement until he walked down to the Walrus and the finally Wally turned around and flopped into the water. Swimming gracefully away to the right, like a long misshapen log swimming in the water, he disappeared then raised his head twice showing his tasks before a turn a lst flip of the flipper and he was gone! Minutes later the Lifeboat emerged abruptly on the slipway and whooshed down the slip in a split second was in the sea and off away on their rescue! It was thrilling to witness all of this and an unprecedented observation of an Arctic mamal so far south, he should normally be in Svaalbad/ Greenland in Arctic waters and not in South Wales! Undoubtedly my most memorable wildlife sighting of the year, so far! Incidently the Beatles song "I am the Walrus" was inspired by a poem by Lewis Carroll from the famous book "Through the Looking Glass" and John Lennon was quite rightly concerned that the Walrus character was portrayed as the villain of the piece! Surely not! Wally (& other walruses too) was/ are very lovely and very gentle, too. He's made indelible impression on me, a new Walrus-phile!! Also seen were 3 Gannets fishing in the bay, aclose Fulmar that flew on stiff- wings north and an Oystercatcher also northbound. POSTSCRIPT: I was extremely lucky to see Wally, because after my visit (the last day (Monday 17th May) he was seen at Tenby, he had swum across the Bristol Channel and had been recently sighted on Wednesday 19th May off Padstow, in Padstow Bay, Cornwall!