Keen-eyed volunteers working on a project to document life in the Ouse Washes captured rare footage of a seal in the New Bedford river.

Adam Finch, of the Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership, was walking along a stretch of the river with volunteers Bob Ellis and Ray Mathias when they spotted the seal near Welney bridge.

The wandering seal would have travelled more than 30 miles from the Wash, in Norfolk, to reach the New Bedford.

Mr Finch said “Me and two volunteers had just given up after a fairly uneventful morning of filming; on our way back Bob spotted a head bobbing up and down in the water.

“At first glance we thought it might be an otter but under closer inspection we saw it was a seal. We couldn’t get a clear view from the bridge, so I scampered down to the bank to try and get a good video clip.

“I was really lucky; and managed to film him swimming alongside me”.

Mr Finch is the media production officer for the Great Ouse Wetland engagement project and is working with a group of volunteers to film a year in the life of the Great Ouse Wetland.

The area covers the land around the New and Old Bedford rivers, which stretches along from St Ives, past Mepal, Oxlode and Welney right through to Nordelph and Denver, in Norfolk.