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Index of Subjects Dear Dave and Jane (and all): This is the time of year when young (mostly year-old) Harp and a few Hooded Seals turn up in Nova Scotia. If you ever see a seal on ice, it's probably not a Harbour Seal. There is a great photo of an unidentified seal hauled out on a boat cover (!) in the Chronicle Herald (Mail Star) this morning. It is, in fact, a Hooded Seal. The two northern species also appear seasonally in some numbers on the beaches of Sable Island and occasionally on mainland beaches. These young seals can be very docile and seemingly somnelant, but are no necessarily in distress. They can bite, though, if provoked! Finally, the breeding season of Grey Seals is upon us, and their young sometimes wander far from their natal grounds, ebven inland, especially along the Northumberland Straits. By what criteria did you identify the Conrad Beach seal as a Harbour Seal? If it was plain grey with scattered large blackish spots, it may have been a young Harp; if beautifully silvery, darker dorsally, and whitish below, it would have been a young Hooded. Compared with Harbour Seals, Harps have rather pointy faces, and Hoods very broad ones (see the Herald photo). It would be interesting if others could keep an eye out for these wanderes in the next couple of months so we can get some idea of the scope of this year's "invasion." Cheers, Ian McLaren Quoting David&Jane Schlosberg <dschlosb-g@ns.sympatico.ca>: > This time we were hosted on our walk-around by Dottie Welch, a very > knowledgable birder who lives right on the marsh edge. Unfortunately for us > NNSer's she's not part of our Talk List but I'm working on her. > > With her help we spotted 5 red-breasted Mergansers and 2 Yellow-eyes. They > were in the open water areas around the little bridge to the parking lot. > There were some Old Squaws on the open coast off Half Island Pt. There were > two Purple Sandpipers on the tidally exposed rocks going out to Fox Pt. > > There was what appeared to be a DYING HARBOUR SEAL on the beach on our side > of the estuary outlet across from Lawrencetown Head. He couldn't seem to > move from a position of lying on his side. Occasionally he would put his > free flipper up in the air and he would look alert. But mostly he seemed to > close his eyes as if in pain. Was there anyone we should have notified? > > Dave&Jane Schlosberg > > > > > > >
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