THE first seal puppy has been spotted on the beaches of Walney recently which is hopefully the first of many says the warden for The South Walney Nature Reserve.

South Walney Nature Reserve is celebrating the arrival of its first pup of the season for the sixth year running.

Sarah Dalrymple, Warden of South Walney Nature Reserve, said: "We are obviously really pleased about this new pup.

"From looking at the Seal Cam we can see that the mum has a spotted patch on her neck which is quite distinctive. So we are looking to connect with other areas who have seals to see if she is familiar to any of them.

"The colonies seem to spread out in other parts of the country, but because we have one big beach they all stay as a collective mainly.

"The seals can be seen from the binoculars as they tend to have the pups on the nearer side where you can see them and no hide away on the other side which is good."

She went on to say how the reserve has been increasingly popular recently but has urged visitors to take care with the wildlife. It is also stressed that dogs are not allowed on the reserve.

Visitors are advised not to go down to the beach where the seals are as it is not a public beach and it may scare the seals, which may lead to a pup being harmed, or even worse, stop the seals coming back each year.

"We are hoping for an increase this year, we had 483 seals last year and seven pups," Ms Dalrymple said. "We first had pups back in 2015 and a record high of 10 was set in 2017, so if we could get as many as that it would be great."

During the 1970s and 80s, seals were seen only singly around Walney Island in Barrow and gradually over time their numbers have increased with a couple of hundred individuals now on and around the island at certain times of the year.

The link to watch the seal camera online can be found at: https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife/cams/seal-cam.