Atlantic grey seal pup on Ramsey Island, 2013

Description

The text below is taken from a blog post that Lisa Morgan, Head of Islands and Marine at the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, wrote regarding the sighting. At the time Lisa was the Warden on Ramsey Island.

"We had two nice surprises on New Year’s Day. Firstly we awoke to a strange orange glow streaming through the curtains, followed by the rise of a brilliant orb in the eastern sky. Apparently, this celestial being is called the sun and it’s something we hadn’t seen for two weeks previous and one we haven’t experienced again since!

So we were quickly out on our first walk of 2013. We were greeted by the Black Redstart, which seems to have taken up residence in the stone wall on the way to the south west coast. And then on the pebble storm beach at Porth Lleuog, a newborn seal pup. Barely two hours old, the skinny yellow pup was still wet and attempting to suckle from its mother for the first time.

It is not unheard of to get an out of season pup born in January or February and Porth Lleuog is always the chosen site. The beach faces the full force of the prevailing south-westerly winds, but importantly the top section of pebbles remains above high water even in the fiercest of storms. This will allow the pup to stay on-land so that it can feed from the cow and it reduces the risk of pup being washed out to sea by the surf.

I went to check on pup yesterday and it was absolutely fine, already looking more robust. It did look slightly puzzled by the 70 adult seals that had chosen to haul-out to sleep on the beach all around it. What was an empty beach covered in driftwood before Christmas is now a busy seal refuge once again."

Description of photo: 1) Newborn seal pup at Porth Lleuog, Ramsey Island

• https://community.rspb.org.uk/placestovisit/ramseyisland/b/ramseyisland-blog/posts/new-year-new-pup (link opens in new window)