Over the past five and a half weeks I have been surveying harbour seal haul outs along the East Kintyre coastline north of Campbeltown – I thought it was about time I checked in with a blog post.
One of the haul outs I have been surveying is immediately outside my accommodation and the seals are present in the area pretty much all day – hauling out at low tide and at high tide. At high tide, they haul out on a rough rocky breakwater only a few metres from the shore. Due to the proximity of the seals, I am able to get some high quality photographs to help with identifying the seals – see the following photograph showing the seals hauling out at high tide (note the poor injured individual second from the front).
The northernmost haul out has seen the highest number of harbour seals – I counted 66 seals on one visit. The southernmost haul out is only exposed when the tides are particularly low but it was here that I been observing the largest number of obviously pregnant seals.
As pupping season seemed to have started everywhere but here, I was keen to spot my first pup of the season. As the tide was low enough today, I decided to get up early and venture to the southernmost site for low tide this morning. My early morning was well worthwhile as I did indeed observe my first pup of the season (see cute photograph of mum and pup). Hurrah!
Written by Craig