PUPDATE: We have our third pup!! (and I have to say, mum looks very
proud!) Unsure of the sex of this little beauty at the moment, I need
it to roll on it's back so I can zoom in
!
Apparently, the birth was missed on sealcam by a matter of minutes this morning...... the pup (named Bart for the time being although this may change to Lisa ;) ) still clearly shows the yellow amniotic fluid stains on the fur. This pup is on the more northerly of the 2 pupping beaches so I will
be switching the camera between the two depending on where the action is
at the time. Hope you all are enjoying
sealcam as much as I am!
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| Bart at about 15 minutes old |
Our other two pups are doing well and have very attentive mums. Wriggle is growing by the minute and is becoming slightly less active as he gets so large whilst Canute favours the far right of the beach and has found a very comfortable spot between the rocks to snooze. It's interesting to see the differences between all 3 pups at different ages and follow their development.
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| A newborn Canute, with a distinctive black face. |
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| Wriggle, our oldest pup on sealcam |
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| Watching the pup |
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| Counting the pups on Holms of Spur Ness |
I
led our first Seal Pup walk of the season out to the far end of Spur
Ness Saturday morning at the south end of Sanday. This is a different
headland to where our sealcam is and is slightly more accessible
although not such good habitat for Greys to pup as it is more exposed
and there are less escape options for the pups in bad weather. It's
still very early days in pupping season here on Orkney so only the one
pup seen, but what a beauty she is! Only a day or so old with her
umbilical cord still present, this little female pup had the yellow
tinge of a newborn pup still. Mum and a bull Grey seal were keeping a
wary eye on us from the sea on us as we stopped admire the pup. We
didn't stay long to minimise disturbance and carried on around the
headland. There were no more pups or adult seals on the usual small
stretches of beach, but at least 18 whitecoat pups were counted over the
water on the Holms of Spur Ness.
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| Young pup |
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| Hello... are you watching me? |
