Another Beds first!

But this time not a bird! A Grey Seal turned up at Kempston Mill on Friday. This amazing news only got to naturalists because Dave Barnes popped down to his local patch this morning and saw this thing staring back at him!

With more and more records coming from various points along the Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire in recent years, this perhaps isn't such a surprise first. By our reckoning, the Ouse is navagable all the way from the Wash, right up to Kempston. Our guess is the Seal has swam through the lock-gates, following the boats up river until it can get no further. This perhaps bears some credence as there was a chap with a small dingy and outboard motor going up and down this stretch today. Every time he put his motor on, the Seal popped up behind as if following it.

There was also a fishing match on the same stretch, and although amusing to see, I don't think the anglers were too impressed with an over-sized Otter zipping around their stretch of river!