• Home
  • about
  • about the photographs
  • Rhos-on-Sea
    • St.Trillo’s Chapel
  • Bryn Euryn Local Nature Reserve
  • Bryn Pydew Nature Reserve
  • Mynydd Marian
  • Coed Pwllycrochan Wood
  • Rhiwledyn Nature Reserve
    • Grey Seals in North Wales
  • Great Orme
  • Llanddwyn Island & Newborough Warren
  • The Wales Coast Path
  • Wildflowers of Coastal Paths, Cliffs and Dunes

everyday nature trails

everyday nature trails

Tag Archives: grey seal

Grey Seal Spot

24 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by theresagreen in Little Orme, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Seals

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Angel Bay, grey seal, grey seal pups, Little Orme, seals in Angel Bay

2014 – January 11th

The Little Orme is a fascinating site to visit at any time of year as it holds a variety of habitats in a relatively small area and there is always something to see, but the winter months are the perfect time to see some of its special visitors, charismatic Grey Seals. There are never many, but the pebbly beach of Angel Bay regularly attracts a number of new mothers and pups that come to haul out to rest on the shore of this sheltered little cove. They are pretty much undisturbed there as the beach is only accessible by a steep narrow track down the cliff. They don’t seem to mind interested people watching them from above too much, even those armed with cameras, although they definitely know you’re there and may keep a wary eye on you to make sure you stay put.

Today I was pleased to discover there were indeed grey seals here; five adults in a group, seemingly dozing, while three tiny young ones were practicing their swimming techniques in the waves.

Grey seals on the shingle shore of Angel Bay, Little Orme

Grey seals on the shingle shore of Angel Bay, Little Orme

The adults appeared not to be too concerned for the safety of the youngsters; grey seal pups have to grow up fast and must be able to start fending for themselves at about a month old, so they grow and put on weight rapidly and quickly shed the pretty white fur coats they are born with. The little ones seemed quite happy in the water, although getting back in, fighting against the incoming waves seemed to present more of a challenge.

Two of the three young seals taking a break from swimming practice on the sea edge

Two of the three young seals taking a break from swimming practice on the sea edge

The adult’s apparent slumber came to an abrupt end when something seemed to alarm them and they travelled surprisingly quickly down to the sea edge.

The seals suddenly decided to move towards the sea edge

The seals suddenly decided to move towards the sea edge

A few metres on they stopped again

A few metres on they stopped again

They were heading towards a young one, making me wonder if they had perhaps been summoned by it, but then as it watched from the surf of the sea edge they simultaneously stopped and flopped down again, seemingly unimpressed.

The adult seals moved down towards a young one on the sea edge

The adult seals moved down towards a young one on the sea edge

From November onwards female grey seals return to their favourite beaches to give birth and mate again. The milk of the grey seal is very rich enabling the pups to put on weight quickly. They have to grow fast as their mothers stay with them for only three weeks before returning to the sea. The mother does not feed herself whilst feeding her pup, so hunger soon drives her back to the sea.  Young seal pups are covered in white fur when they’re born. Within a month or so they shed the pup fur, grow dense waterproof adult fur, and leave for the sea to learn to fish for themselves. The pup soon follows and must teach itself to hunt for food.

I have posted about grey seals several times before, my favourite being a post about the rescue of a very young pup  from beneath the sea-break boulders at Rhos Point by some of the caring keepers from the Welsh Mountain Zoo. The photograph below is from that post.

Alone on the seashore the baby seal looked very small and vulnerable

Alone on the seashore the baby seal looked very small and vulnerable

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...

Not a trip to Skomer but a great day out

21 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by theresagreen in birds singing, coastal habitat, coastal walks, Nature, Pembrokeshire coastal path

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

barn swallow, birds singing, common dolphin, cormorants flying, gannet, grey seal, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, Linnet, marloes peninsular, martin's haven, meadow pipit, Northern Wheatear, razorbill, stonechat, wooltack point

The Saturday following the Friday of the terrible weather dawned bright and sunny and apart from a few lurking clouds the sky looked innocently down upon us as though nothing had happened. We were still hoping for a trip over to Skomer Island, so set off to drive the hour or so that it takes to reach Martin’s Haven, from where the boats depart. We were not too hopeful of being able to get to Skomer today; Saturday’s are popular anyway and as no boats would have gone out yesterday, we expected it to be busy. A first sight of the car park, already overflowing onto adjacent land brought that sinking feeling, compounded by the attendant informing us that all 150 of the day’s landing ticket allocation had been sold by 9.30am. We were somewhat taken aback to learn that some people had begun queuing for places at 5.30am; the first boat for the island leaves at 10am. So, no Skomer for us today.

We had made some effort to get here though and determined to make the best of our situation decided to explore the area around the headland instead. The headland is known as the Marloes Peninsular; the land is owned by the National Trust and for some reason we have not managed to establish is named “Deer Park”, although there are no deer here. There are however spectacular rocks, sea views that take in most of the Pembrokeshire Islands, wildflowers and, we were fairly confident, there would be birds.

We set off to walk up to the highest point of the peninsular, Wooltack Point, distinguished by the small white building on the top that is now an active coastwatch point operated by the National Coastwatch Institute.

We were soon distracted by the small birds we began to see around us almost immediately: Stonechats, Linnets and Meadow Pipits, all species that can make homes in this rather bleak windswept habitat, carpeted with grass and heather and furnished only with low-growing tangles of gorse bushes, brambles and generally scrubby vegetation.

The first bird we had a good view of was this little Stonechat female (Saxicola torquata), who was very shortly joined by a male.

The Stonechat male perched just a short distance away from his mate

There were several Linnets flying around and one beautiful male landed quite near us on a bramble and began to sing.

This beautiful male Linnet was singing from atop a dead bramble stem

It was sunny here, but windy too, so it was some consolation to think that those on the boats travelling across to Skomer would probably be feeling the combined effects of the cold wind and choppy sea in a not-too-pleasant way. Yes, very immature, especially as we have actually made the journey in even rougher conditions, survived and gone on to have a spectacular day. Anyway, onwards and upwards to Wooltack Point. The views out over St.Bride’s Bay are truly spectacular, but the sea around this point can be treacherous with concealed rocks and strong currents, hence the presence of the Coastwatch.

The incorrectly marked compass (click to enlarge)

We attempted to work out the layout of the islands we could see, picking out Skomer easily as it was close by and Ramsey Island as we recognised the shape of St. David’s Head, but were guessing at the others. I spotted a compass of sorts on a plinth outside the door of the stone hut and as I leaned in to take a picture of it the coastguard popped out to tell us that its directions are useless as all points are wrong. Apparently even the North marking is incorrect. He was quite amused by the fact that “there is nowhere in the world from which that plaque would be correct” and has no idea why it has never been replaced.

The nearest we got to Skomer Island today, just 2 miles across the Sound

Ramsey Island, 9.5 miles away is located off St David’s Head

Dropping down onto the cliff in front of the hut we discovered it to be sheltered from the wind and much warmer. We sat there for at least an hour watching the array of seabirds flying back and forth or swimming and diving around the rocks below us.

Razorbills were the most numerous birds on the water, but there were a few guillemots and cormorants too.

Razorbills swim on the surface then suddenly make a synchronised dive and disappear underwater for ages, eventually reappearing some distance away

Cormorant flying close to the rocks, low over the water

Herring Gulls passed us by very closely

Lesser Black-backed gulls were another frequent sight

We were delighted by the appearance of Grey Seals in the sea just below us, and even more thrilled when we realised there were dolphins too. The first dolphin we picked up on was following the Skomer boat on its return trip to Martin’s Haven, but soon realised there were at least three in total.

Grey Seal

The island of Grassholm is occupied by an enormous colony of breeding Gannets (another highly recommended trip to take) and although it is 10 miles away from where we were today we kept a hopeful look out. We were rewarded with an initially distant sighting of a number of the birds circling and diving, but over the course of twenty minutes or so they gradually worked their way towards us, clearly following the progress of a shoal of fish. This is why the dolphins were there too. It would have been lovely to have had closer views, but both they and the birds were near enough to be seen well through binoculars.

One of a number of Gannets closely following a shoal of fish

The spot we had chosen to settle in seemed to be within the territory of a Pipit. He made several tours of the rocks immediately around us, making some rather disgruntled noises, clearly not happy with us, but otherwise undeterred by our presence.

I think this is a Meadow Pipit, but going on its location, it could be a Rock Pipit

The Pipit demonstrating his ‘parachuting’ display flight whilst singing

This is undoubtedly a tough environment for wildflowers, but there was thrift and sheep’s bit flowering and almost squashed into the short grass several tiny specimens of pretty blue spring squill.

There were bumblebees visiting most of the available flowers

Leaving our sheltered viewpoint we continued our walk around the remainder of the headland then cut back inland towards the car.

Rocky coves with sheltered beaches such as the one below the cliff here on the far side of the peninsular are perfect places to see grey seals and their pups. The land in the top right of the picture is the tip of Skomer.

Next on the agenda was to seek out another sheltered spot in which to eat our lunch. With hindsight we did consider that perhaps if we had not stopped at M & S in Haverfordwest for decent sarnies we may have squeezed onto that boat … ? (Normally we would have made our own, but pinned in by the tree we couldn’t get out to the shops yesterday and had no suitable supplies.) But, on the bright side,  it was more than pleasant here and we had had some very fresh air and some wonderful sights. We located another likely spot to enjoy our food in and settled down. We soon realised we were being watched; a baby bunny was peeking through the grass at the top of a sandy hillock close by that we could now see was above the entrance to a warren.

Baby rabbit on the roof of the family home

We were thoroughly enjoying our lunch sitting on a grassy bank in a warm and sunny spot, appreciating our beautiful surroundings and reviewing the wealth of sights we had enjoyed, when another bird appeared in front of us. This was a handsome jaunty male Wheatear and once again we seemed to have settled ourselves in the middle of his territory. He seemed to be making a point of travelling around us, settling on rabbit hills, brambles, rocks and the like. We did feel a little guilt but carried on enjoying the sight of him quietly, staying as still as is possible whilst yielding a hefty camera lens.

A female appeared too from the same direction and made a similar circuit, so we surmised that they had a nest located somewhere behind the bank occupied by the rabbits. Beautiful birds.

The very handsome male Wheatear asserting his territory from the top of a rabbit hill

The female Wheatear with her browner plumage is also a very attractive bird

Arriving back at the lane leading to the beach we headed for the loos to find there was an unusual queue to enter the building. A number of Barn Swallows were waiting for people to leave, taking their opportunities to swoop in to their nests built in various places inside.

One of a pair of Barn Swallows waiting to get into the toilet block and back to their nests

Although they are a familiar sight swooping and gliding over the countryside, it’s not often you get such close views of these elegant birds and to appreciate their very glossy plumage.

This bird was taking advantage of the waiting time to thoroughly preen its feathers

I was listening and watching for a sight of a Whitethroat, as we have always seen them here in the past, but not so today. As we made our way up the hill towards the car park we did see another Wheatear and had a quick glimpse of the back of a Dunnock singing from a bramble patch.

A quick glimpse of a Dunnock that was singing from a bramble patch

Not the outing we had planned, but a thoroughly enjoyable few hours spent in a beautiful place and still with a bit more to come….

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...

Baby seal update

23 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by theresagreen in Nature, nature of woodlands, Seals

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

baby grey seal, baby grey seal rescue, grey seal, guidelines on seal rescue, seals around welsh coasts, welsh mountain zoo

An account of the baby seal rescue was reported in the local paper yesterday, with a picture of a baby Grey seal, (not sure if it was actually him) on the front page, and one of my photos of the actual rescue accompanying the article.

Hopefully the article will help to raise awareness of the proximity to us of these lovely animals and of our responsibility to their welfare. The breeding season for Grey seals is underway now and will mostly go smoothly and escape our notice, but there will be times when intervention is necessary.

Help may at times be called for when it is not necessary, so the RSPCA have published guidelines on their website on how to tell if a baby seal is really in trouble and what to do in that event:

Meanwhile, happily all seems to be going well for the rescued seal pup; now relocated to the safety of the Seal Unit at the Welsh Mountain Zoo, he has been given the name ‘Jakey’ and I have no doubt at all that he is being very well cared for there.

Raising a baby seal is a huge undertaking and I imagine, very labour intensive. In a natural situation, pups would drink about 3 litres a day of their mother’s milk, which is about 60% fat, and their weight increases rapidly, they put on about 35 to 40kg in their first 3 weeks. At the Zoo, rescued pups are fed a special fish-paste diet to begin with, then will be taught to eat whole fish in around a month’s time. He will need to be carefully monitored and the aim is to release him back into the sea sometime in the New Year.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

MOST RECENT POSTS

  • January on the Bryn January 21, 2023
  • Squirrelling Away…… October 23, 2022
  • Conwy Marine Walk February 15, 2022
  • Blowing Away the Cobwebs January 26, 2022
  • On the Trail of the Jackdaws of Conwy Town January 17, 2022
  • The Butterfly Effect July 31, 2021

OLDER POSTS

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR?

  • Grey Seals in North Wales
    Grey Seals in North Wales
  • Bryn Pydew
    Bryn Pydew
  • The Foxglove - of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine
    The Foxglove - of Fairytales, Myths & Medicine
  • Beauty and the Bullfinch
    Beauty and the Bullfinch
  • Conwy castle, bridge and town wall walk
    Conwy castle, bridge and town wall walk
  • On the Trail of the Jackdaws of Conwy Town
    On the Trail of the Jackdaws of Conwy Town
  • Woodland plants may be pungent, prickly and even poisonous
    Woodland plants may be pungent, prickly and even poisonous
  • Snowdrops at Chirk Castle
    Snowdrops at Chirk Castle
  • The not-so-common House Sparrow
    The not-so-common House Sparrow
  • Grey Seal Spot
    Grey Seal Spot

nightingale trails

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

The Walk of the Monarch Butterfly-Sendero de la Mariposa Monarca

MY WILDFLOWER BLOG: where the wildflowers are

Snowdrop

Snowdrop

most recent posts

Follow everyday nature trails on WordPress.com

Social

  • View teresamaygreen’s profile on Twitter

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Website Built with WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • everyday nature trails
    • Join 343 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • everyday nature trails
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: