Sunday 6 October 2013

Crazy seals

The first thing I saw today was a Grey Seal that had managed to get into our inflatable boat and was having a morning snooze. His morning snooze turned into a day in bed and he spent the rest of the day in our boat giving visitors to the island much amusement as they came into North Haven to land on the island.

This seal knows how to take it easy
That wasn't the most incredible thing that happened with the seals today however. Whilst inspecting a cave to monitor breeding activity we heard a new born seal pup crying. The sound came from above the cave, which was bazaar as only the biggest tide could lift a seal up there. After a bit of climbing we came across a shocking sight. The pup had managed to get wedged in between two rocks and was clearly in a bad way,

Wedged
Now getting a seal out from between two rocks isn't all that easy and I wouldn't recommend trying it. However, eventually we got the pup out and took it down to safety, putting it on a ledge that would be hit by the tide in a few hours time.

crazy seals
We checked it over and put a small red spot of sheep spray on its bum so that we could monitor its progress. Two hours later I watched the mother desperately trying to reach her pup as the tide brought her closer to reunion.

Maternal instinct
Other wildlife seen over the last couple of days includes, a Lapland Bunting and several Clouded Yellows yesterday and some Common Dolphins, a Yellow browed Warbler and many Goldcrests today.

Little sprite
Thanks again to our long term volunteer Helen for all her hard work. Helen leaves us tomorrow and you can read about the six weeks she spent on the island on the bog post beneath this one.

Eddie Stubbings, Skomer Warden

2 comments:

  1. I was in Pembs last week, now following your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. umm, think you meant bizarre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazaar

    ReplyDelete