Common Seal at Pagham Harbour

I received another fascinating common seal sighting today, the observer was walking at the Western end of the Pagham Harbour Wall (West Sussex). It was high tide and the seal swam very close to the group of people. The observer, Jacky, said it swam around and it seemed to be frolicking. Then it gazed fixedly at us made movements as if it was going to jump out of the water and attack us and at the last minute swam under and turned away. She said you could almost think it was laughing...

Jacky said it followed us as we turned the corner at the end of the wall and started to walk south then we turned back as the way was blocked by a thorn bush and went inland, so that was the last we saw of it. Jacky remarked that it was a quite fabulous encounter. Jacky spoke to the people at the Pagham Harbour Reserve who told her that they do have one seal in occasionally and it comes they think from a colony at Hayling Island.

From the seal tagging project I was involved in and covered last year in this weblog, we did indeed discover that one of the seals from the Hayling Island group did venture into Pagham Harbour on occasions.

First common seal sighting of 2010

I received a report of a Common Seal from Graham in the River Ouse yesterday (2nd January) at Lewes by the moorings.Graham provided the following superb pictures of the seal.

(c) Graham Farey

(c) Graham Farey

The seal was sunning itself on a pontoon and was seen by many people, two sightings reported to me so far.

(c) Graham Farey

(c) Graham Farey

The Ouse is quite a tidal river and it is likely that the seal travelled up river following fish. The tide had recently turned, and the seal may have swum up-river on the incoming tide. Because seals can happily haul out, they sometimes spend a few days up river before returning to the sea. As you will see from my other blog entries, it is not uncommon for healthy "happy" seals to swim upriver.

  (c) Graham Farey

Due to the quality of the pictures I am hoping that we will either be able to match it with a known seal (by spot pattern markings) or create this seal with its own ID profile. There are similarities with a seal observed last year which I intend to investigate further. Watch this space for an update.

Common Seal, River Ouse, Sussex

Another seal sighting, probable common seal. The observer reported the following. "On a dog walk today with my husband along the river bank (River Ouse) in Piddinghoe we saw a seal. There was a loud splash and then a few seconds later saw what thought was a football and then realised it was a seal looking at us. It did this for for a minute or so and then completely disappeared".

Common Porpoise stranding

A dead Common (or Harbour) Porpoise was stranded on the beach near Widewater lagoon, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex on 27/11/09

The porpoise was identified as a female as mammary slits were visible. The porpoise was 173cm in length.

3 teeth were removed (in a dead specimen teeth fallout very easy). Teeth are routinely removed where possible from dead strandings which can be used used as a means of aging the animal. A section of a tooth reveals growth rings (under the microscope) similar to a tree which can be used to determine the age.

Grey Seal

Another Sussex seal sighting, reported as a young grey seal on the river Adur past Lancing College. This may actually be the common seal preiously reported in the River Adur, but wuld need photographs to confirm this.

Dead Seal

A dead seal was washed up on Shoreham, Beach, possibly an adult common seal. Animal was quiite decomposed. 

Common Seal in River Adur West Sussex.

Another common seal sighting, this time in the River Adur in West Sussex. The seal was seen swimming in the lower estuary area of the river on Saturday 17th October. On Sunday, a seal (almost certainly the same one) was spotted seen a few miles up river near Upper Beeding.

I am hoping to obtain photographs of this seal. Looking at the picture that appeared in the Shoreham Herald it is almost certainly the same seal we have seen in the past in the nearby River Ouse where it swims many miles up river above Lewes.