I’m happy to be reporting on the first two dolphin trips of 2009! YAY! On Tuesday, we headed to the “dolphin grounds” in search of our old friends. It took a couple of hours to find them, but we were greeted by a surprising group of youngsters. It isn’t often that we see calves unaccompanied by their mothers – so, although yesterdays group included un-named #84 (independent calf of Trudy), a second very young juvenile (only a spot or two) and 3 calves, we suspect that the mothers weren’t far away. The young group of 5 gave the human group quite the bow riding show, but unfortunately, did not stick around for an underwater encounter. A short time later we came upon a different group of 4 sub-adult Atlantic spotted dolphins, including Split Jaw (#22) and Lil’ Jess (#35). They spent a few minutes riding the bow and then a few more showing off their surfing skills in the boat wake – then they too were off! On the way home we also got a very quick glimpse of 2 bottlenose, but there was not enough time to take any ID pictures.
Wednesday’s dolphin trip was a bit less exciting. We spent the afternoon looking for dolphins, but they were a no show. Could this have been because we couldn’t see them as well in the rough seas? Tomorrow should be calmer, so hopefully we’ll have better luck.
Until next time,
Kel