A fisherman named Guy, two seals, a seagull, and a heron.

Yesterday, a fisherman named Guy kindly invited me down on the dock at Granville Island to get a closer view of four of his friends.  I was way too excited, missed many of my photos and have forgotten vital information, like the name of this seal.  I can tell you that I have been watching her for more than a year now, but yesterday, I fell in love with her.  Guy has known her for eleven years.  She is way pregnant and one day, if I'm really, really lucky, I may get to meet her pup.  For this post, I'm going to call her Mom.   

This is Stretch,   

and here, we have Seymour and Guy. 

There is one more character here, barely visible.  His name is Bubbles and he is Mom's son.  I did not get a good shot of Bubbles yesterday, but he is there, in the water, waiting along with Mom, Stretch and Seymour, for Guy to finish cleaning his boat.  All four have arrived a bit early but they are pretty sure they will be rewarded for their patience.

 Stretch was first,

 then Seymour,

 who caught his share,

thrown expertly by Guy.  My shutter speed was too slow, and I missed all of the action shots, but Guy has said that I can go back again, and I plan to take him up on that very generous offer.  Guy is a fisherman and a hunter.  I didn't tell him I'm vegan.  I hope he'll forgive me.  He made me think of my Newfoundland fisherman grandfather who died before I was born.  His was a truly fascinating story that you can read about at this link if you are interested.

 Mom checks out the goods, and Bubbles waits his turn.

I'm not sure if Bubbles has gone away with his treat.  With the camera in front of my eyes, and with my heart pounding (don't laugh), I probably missed at least as much of the action as I caught.

Too low a shutter speed again, but I'm still happy to have caught this one.  Guy told me that Mom is very careful about the way she takes her offerings.

 In these next two shots, you can see Mom's very round belly.

Guy seemed to think her little one may arrive quite soon.

 So gentle..  both of them.

Stretch supervised with a no-nonsense look about him,

but he seemed as confident as Seymour that he would get his fair share.

 These are the best of the photos I managed to get yesterday.  Thank you, Guy!  Your generosity really touched me.  And, thank you to the young man who held Black Jack while I took the pictures.  His name has escaped me as well, but not his kindness.  I hope to meet all of you again very soon.
Edited to add:  I was out this afternoon and now know that Mom's name is Seaweed.