Seal ID please!

Can anybody confirm which species of seal this is? I thought it was a common, but a few books are suggesting it may be a grey! Any ideas? This was taken in September on Arran (if that helps!).

There is also another image of a juvenile seal here: juvenile seal

Can anyone confirm the species of the juv. one too?

Many thanks!

Michael S

Hello Michael
Looks like a Common to me, with the flatter nose (funny thing though, there are more Grey Seals than Commons). We seem to get both species together here on Bute.
Nice image BTW
Best wishes
Phil

Cheers Phil. I was thinking it was common, but some of my books were suggesting the colour pattern made it a grey. Like you say, the flatter nose suggests Common. I think the juvenile one (the image in the link) might be a grey, because of the longer snout. But it was at the same place as the other one - do commons and greys mix happily?

Thanks again,

Michael S

Hi Michael

I'm afraid i'm not much good on ID but a lovely shot anyway. I may haved cropped a wee bit off the top but that's a personal opinion.

Regards Chris
www.c-m-l.com (recently updated)

Hi Michael

The main photo looks like a common seal to me - it has the classic, dog-like head. The colour and patterns can be quiute variable. The juveinle in the other image is definately a grey. Yes - in the west of Scotland, you can see both together quite often.

Nice picture.

Malcolm

More V-shaped nostrils point towards a common, tho' admittedly she has a big nose.

A

Hi Michael

Looks like a very nice image of Common Seal!

David

Thanks for the comments everyone! Your help is much appreciated!

What would I do without UKNP?

Michael S

P.S. Anyone who's interested, this was with a 70-200 f4 L & 1.4x TC

Thanks again!

Much prefer photos of these out of water like this one than just bobbing about in water Michael

Terry