Watching us, watching them

Published 15:32 on 31 Oct 2025

With the end of the season at Woolverstone we towed the Wheelyboat across to Titchmarsh Marina and during the course of October have run a number of seal-watching trips for our sailors. A range of groups have taken advantage of this and had some great trips. The seals played ball (not literally!) as well and often admired the Hweelyboat as we went past. The trips out also gave us a wide range of birds. To see the seasl at the best time many of the trips were timed to be around low water and this meant large flocks of wading birds feeding as went past. We saw redshank, dunlin, lapwings, little egrets (very appropriate - seeing egrets from the Wheelyboat called 'Egret'), oystercatchers and various geese. Heading through Hamford Water the seals would stick their heads up, clearly wondering why we were intruding on their space, but once their curiosity was satisfied they returned to the far more important job of fishing, often arcing almost playfully out of the water in pursuit of their prey.

The Hamford Water reserve has a colony of both harbour seals which are known as Phoca vitulina and grey seals who answer to the Latin name Halichoerus grypus. Many of them are an unusual almost red or russet colour. This is because as they haul themselves across the mud they absorb iron oxide which the mud is rich in. The whole area is a National Nature Reserve and an internationally important wetland for birds (RAMSAR). It consists of mudflats, islands cris-crossed by tidal creeks and saltmarsh. The area is best viewed by boat and heading slowly out from Titchmarsh through the Twizzle creek gives time to absorb the unique atmosphere of an area where the wildlife is at home and we are just interlopers on their territory.

The success of this year's trips means we are planning to carry them on and perhaps even expand them considerably for next year, so watch this space. Our thanks go to the team at Titchmarsh Marina who have generously supported us in our time there.

Last updated 15:33 on 31 October 2025