PORTLAND — A young seal somehow wandered up a steep embankment and crossed four lanes of traffic to make an unexpected appearance at the entrance of Mercy Hospital.

Mike Therrian, who was shoveling snow, says he saw the seal under an awning and thought it might be someone bundled under a blanket Friday morning. Instead, he says it was a 30-inch-long gray seal.

Hospital security was alerted, and a marine mammal expert was dispatched.

But Therrian and a co-worker from Seabreeze Property Service had encouraged the seal to move on before the arrival of Lynda Doughty from Marine Animals of Maine. Therrian says that with some coaxing the seal slid down the hill and crawled back into the Fore River, which empties into Portland Harbor.