CHRIS BISHOP

As soon as the lights go on, the sleek heads bob up like periscopes, looking for a tasty titbit.

Then the water turns to foam as 10 young seals jostle to catch their tea.

Staff and volunteers last night staged a floodlit seal feed as part of an open evening at the RSPCA's East Winch Wildife Centre.

Dozens of pups are being cared for in open air pools and the centre's seal hospital, as the grey seal breeding season gets into full swing around our coastline.

Each year some of the animals get washed ashore after becoming separated from their parents. Others are brought in needing intensive care, suffering from lung worm or damaged flippers.

Centre manager Alison Charles said up to 70 seals could be cared for at East Winch, which recently celebrated its 15th birthday.

Most of the centre's current crop of patients were brought in after being found by members of the public or dog walkers, on beaches as far afield as South Wales, Merseyside and North Yorkshire.

“There are a lot of seal pups at Winterton, Wells and Blakeney Point at the moment,” said Ms Charles.

“They look very sweet but should not be approached because they have a nasty bite.”

Experts say grey seals - which can reach weights of up to 300kg - appear to be displacing the smaller common seals from many areas of Norfolk. It remains to be seen whether this is a legacy of previous outbreaks of the PDV seal virus, which decimated colonies in The Wash in 1988 and 2002.

“The greys are definitely doing better and seem to be pushing the commons out,” said Ms Charles. “Perhaps they're more adaptable.”

East Winch's hospital houses pups with names like Mr Funny, Mr Forgetful and Mr Jelly, as staff work their way through the Mr Men books and come up with a few names of their own for their charges.

Weighing as little as 20kg, the seals will need to be at least twice as large and fully fit before they can be returned to take their chances in the wild.

Outside in the freezing rain, RSPCA relief worker Jane Mannion was throwing herrings into a pool containing 10 seals further down the road to recovery, as visitors watched from the warm and dry inside.

“They know their food's coming when they see the lights go on,” she said, as seals swirled and dived for the fish.

With 40 swans, more than 100 hedgehogs and other injured birds and animals, the centre's 23 staff and 10 volunteers have their work cut virtually round-the-clock.

Ms Charles said Saturday's open evening was an experiment to give the public the chance to see the work of the centre.

“The animals get fed at night this time of year so we thought it would be nice to let the locals come in and see what we get up to,” she said.