Seal Watching in Pelham Bay Park

Before you get too excited, we don't have any photos of seals here. We saw them --- blubbery tubes shifting and sunning on rocks in Pelham Bay --- but only through a telescope. (If you really squint, you might be able to make out their shapes in the second picture below.) Several times throughout the winter, the rangers at Pelham Bay Park set up scopes along the shore and invite the public to come check out the harbor seals who spend the season enjoying the bay's placid, predator-free waters. And the park itself is something of a marvel, three times larger than Central Park and blessed with a shoreline perfect for scampering.