This was not a sight we wanted on our walk on Littleferry beach this morning. The last time we came across a seal pup on the beach we left it, thinking that the mother would return and collect it, and it died, so this time....
....we contacted the British Divers Marine Life Rescue centre who, having taken the details, said they were very busy but would get someone out as soon as they could. One thing we did notice was that the seal had injuries, mostly fairly small, along its back and over one eye. It also seemed very loath to move, even when the waves of a rising tide approached it.
So we left it in the hope that an uncontrolled dog didn't find it, only....
....to start finding dead seabirds washed ashore, the first a guillemot in beautiful condition, then....
....a gull which had been scavenged, and finally....
....a pink-footed goose, all within twenty metres of each other. Having seen relatively few dead birds along the shoreline recently, a news report the other day said that avian flu was back in the Moray Firth. This was not the sort of news we wanted just at the start of winter, when flu is most virulent.
A little further on we came across the tracks of a seal coming straight up the beach to the high-tide line and then straight back down again. I hope this was the pup we found earlier rather than a different one also in trouble.
To cheer us up, as we left the beach we came across this sea rocket plant growing just above the tide line in exuberant full flower.
This was not a sight we wanted on our walk on Littleferry beach this morning. The last time we came across a seal pup on the beach we left it, thinking that the mother would return and collect it, and it died, so this time....
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