National Trust Talk and Walk; Big Haulouts; Hats & Tags

On Sunday 13th March, 30 National Trust members joined the Seal Group for a seal 'Talk and Walk'. Sue's talk was illustrated with photos and video clips of seals. After a hot drink and cake in the cafe, visitors learned about all aspects of life as a grey seal, seal behaviour patterns, threats to their existance and how to identify individual seals. The weather was unusually calm and warm, perfect for a stroll and for seal watching. Seal Group members turned up with spare binoculars and telescopes, giving everyone the chance to get a really good, close look at the 60+ seals who turned up to greet them! It was wonderful to answer so many interesting questions and to talk with people genuinely interested in seals. Many thanks to everyone who turned up and to Seal Group members for being so generous with their time and kit!

Friday 18th March saw 3 more seals released at Gwithian by the National Seal Sanctuary. All have yellow hat tags, so if you are lucky enough to spot one, please report it immediately on 01325 221361. One of the seals released, Kenn, was reluctant to leave the beach, so BDMLR Medics spent the day observing the situation. As a result of his concern, Dan Jarvis was back early on Saturday morning. This was very lucky, as his visit to the haulout beach proved somewhat of a surprise - there were over 100 seals of all shapes, sizes and colours lying on the beach! Dan texted Seal Group members who turned out in force to witness the spectacular sight of up to 118 seals on the beach and 7 dolphins cruising just offshore. By Sunday morning, there were still over 100 seals on the beach, as the neap tides had barely moved, leaving the seals to lie in peace and undisturbed.

At least 4 tagged seals were seen over the weekend. Puffer, Neil and Sweetpea were identified from their markings and flipper tag numbers, but one remained unidentified, as his orange flipper tag appeared to be blank with no number. A fifth seal showed signs that he too had worn a hat tag, which had left a round bald patch on top of his head.

Despite the difficulty of identifying individual seals during the moulting season, we are already having some success with our monthly seal visit predictions. Of 3 seals predicted to visit the haulout beach in March, one was spotted on Saturday (Seahorse) and another was seen just a few days early on 26th February. Fingers cross we'll see the remaining seal prediction - W6.

Seals along strand line (Far left) : Dolphins (Mid left) : Sweetpea Tag 012 (Middle) : Ex Hattie ( Mid right) : Seahorse (Far right.)