I received a message on my phone this morning – “Sorry for being a pest so early on a Sunday morning. But they are a large number of White sided dolphins just at Bixter“. So Daisy and I hopped into the car and drove off to have a look.
After spotting a van with some dolphin-spotting looking folk, they told us where the best place was to park and off we went again a bit further down the road.
And we found them!
It was not easy – but we got our “eye in” looking for waves that appeared different from other waves with the occasional black triangle on top and then following the line.
And then there were lots of dolphins and they circled the voe and we all watched.
I know very little (ok, nothing) about dolphins but, by asking questions to other watchers, I found out they were a large group (about 40) of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus).
Folk had parked up and down the voe and everyone was enjoying the show. We even saw friends and relatives too. Quite the social-distancing event really.
When the pod finally swam past us, to a man, everyone just said “Wow” over and over again. It was breathtaking. Apologies for the total overload of photos of dots on the horizon but I was utterly mesmerized. There’s something very special about seeing dolphins in their natural habitat. They are truly beautiful.
How exciting! I think anything like this (seeing wildlife in it’s natural habitat) is a BIG treat!
Superlatives fail me, that looks like a brilliant morning and your photos do give some idea of the magic of the experience
I wonder if they are still out there, so will be alert as would like to see them
What a treat!!! Dolphins are spectacular animals. The boat I was on to Catalina Island (a testination off the Southern California coast) was chased by a pod one time. It was so much fun. thanks for sharing. The pics were wonderful and your countryside is just so pretty.
How wonderful! Great photos! Dolphin spotting is such fun!
What a special and wonderful sight! I’d never thought of Dolphins in that area. Could they be following and then eating some smaller type of fish? Just amazing!
WOW! I have never seen dolphins in the wild. Only taken many whale watching trips off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass. Love seeing the dolphins!
I join the rest of dolphin watchers and Sam and WOW! Thank you for posting about this.
What a lovely start to the day!
It is always exciting to see dolphins. I hope to see them next month when my family and I will visit Chincoteague and Assateaque islands off the coast of Virginia in the US. We hope to see them off the beach in the Atlantic and even occasionally we have seen them in the channel which runs between the two islands. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we are still able to go and the recent spike in the Covid cases does not put new restrictions on travel.
That was cool!
Fantastic to see, and so many of them, You’re so lucky.
Very exciting seeing your pictures of all the dolphins! How cool. We used to have a condo in Florida and there we would see dolphins swimming by every day……those were bottlenose dolphins. I’m glad you guys had the chance to jump in the car and watch these wonderful creatures swim by. That would make my day!