This Juvenille Harbor Seal was recently found hanging out at Jamestown Beach (not far from the Chesapeake Bay)...while not uncommon to see a Seal in the Chesapeake it isn't very common either and especially not common to see them in the James River(brackish water)....Evidently, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center was contacted and their "Stranding Team" is rumored to be getting ready to come and rescue him...Their staff has assessed him(they arent sure of his sex yet) and they say(via the newspaper article I read) that he is a healthy weight and shows the posture of a healthy seal when he is awake...anyway I decided to go down to the beach today to see if I could see him and get a shot or two...unfortunately, I didnt see him and was just hanging out taking some bird pics when one of the guards for the Ferry asked me what I was doing...told him I was just taking pics of the birds and stuff and had heard about a seal but didnt see him...well he went on to tell me he was on the other side of the road/bridge and he was nice enough to let me walk over to where he was(i was above the beach on the road looking over the guard rail at him)...he wasnt supposed to let me go to take the pics where I did so I was very lucky to get these few pics...lighting wasn't very nice as can be seen by the shadow to his left...he was sleeping or so it seemed but when he heard the shutter release he looked up at me and kinda posed a bit...These are all taken with my 100-400 on a monopod and the only pic that is a crop is the last full body shot....C&C is much appreciated. Oh and the paper is calling him JAMES for now.
Also, I am not sure if the stick coming out of his mouth is stuck in his mouth or if it was sorta just stuck from being dried to it...hopefully it isn't something that is hurting him(oh and you can see some of his breakfast in the upper right in the full body shot)
