Keith the seal - More photos (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Keith the seal - More photos

4:43pm Wednesday 2nd January 2013 in News

WILDLIFE lovers in Bewdley and Stourport have been treated to an unusual sight over the last few days after a seal was spotted in the River Severn.

The seal was spotted in Stourport Marina today as well as a sighting on New Year's Day in Bewdley.

Luke Hemming, who works at the Marina, took nearly 50 photographs of the seal which was seen eating pike fish.

Visitor Rebecca Harris, of Kidderminster, snapped a photograph of the seal, known locally as Keith, from Severnside North in Bewdley yesterday.

She said: “He was lying on the edge of Severnside North between the flood barriers and the river barrier, which was underwater.

“As more people came to look, he swam away. We waited, hoping to see him again and spotted him about 20 metres further up the river. It was a beautiful sight and a brilliant way to start off the year.”

Despite being named after a Royalist commander in the English Civil War after being first spotted in Upton-upon-Severn in November, it is thought that Keith is actually a female.

Sightings of seals are rare in the River Severn but over the last few months, a number of reports have caused a stir in the local media.