Your right in saying common seals are smaller when adult.
Common seal colour is varied but like most seals they appear black when wet.
The only real feature that is different is the shape of the nose and muzzle.
Also only Grey seals bottle (stick their nose in the air while floating)
Common seal
Grey seal
Note the way the common nose bends over the front of the muzzle where as the grey is more straight down
The common muzzle is also shorter and puffs more out towards the sides.
Most commons are found at Brough,Ham, a few at Scotlands Haven and of late quite a few at Gills.
Of the 24 i saw last weekend i only saw 6 pups among them.
Common pups unlike greys are born in the sea mainly June ,July.
Grey pups are white and are born on land late Oct onward.
I hope that helps Liz
Bookmarks