Thursday 20 December 2012

Rot-ten day for seals and lifeboat house!

Cast your mind back in the mists of time 8 days ago when we wrote a post about a visit from staff from the RSPCA wildlife hospital at East Winch. We mentioned that on occasions we call on their excellent facilities and expertises when we get a sick or injured seal. Until yesterday all was reasonably quiet in the seal colony but whilst doing our twice weekly count George came across this little pup.  


It had either approached the wrong mum for food or got in the way of a Bull seal defending an area of beach. Whichever, it definitely came off worst in the encounter! This picture was sent to East Winch and few minutes later came the response 'Please could you get it here ASAP?'. I called up Elaine one of our Volunteer Seal Rangers and we set off complete with our stretcher. We found the pup and carried it the half mile back to the nearest vehicle pick-up point. Then it was off to East Winch to deliver it. First thing on arrival is to get the pup weighed and give it a name. This one was 14.8Kgs and as it is Jubilee year the theme is Royalty so he got the name Lion King (must have run out of monarchs names as they are already nearly full). This little pup will stay with them now until he reaches the required release weight of 45Kgs. He will be living on a diet of fish soup, basically herring put through a blender, until he can eat whole fish. Females are released at 40Kgs. The actual count of new borns added another 32 to the running total making an incredible 1197. 

The builders refurbishing the Lifeboat House had an extra helping hand as one of the pups decided to move under one of the vehicles. Not happy with the hundreds and hundreds of acres of space, this one put itself in the middle of the works.


Speaking of the Lifeboat house works, the more they undercover the more the problems mount including rusty steel girders, holes in the chimney breast and rotten windows. Looks like the works are timely!





Graham
Coastal Ranger


1 comment:

  1. Lovely blog, Graham. You should write them more often! (your secret admirer)

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