Wednesday 26 August 2015

From the Beacon point at Harbour Village I saw that there were three Bottlenose off the north breakwater. A quick dash home to get the kit and ten minutes later I was standing behind the camera. These were previously unseen (to me anyway) individuals and they had some distinctive markings. The calf was very advanced and a job to tell apart from it's mother at a distance, although looking at the images both have notched dorsals to some degree. The other adult was very distinctive (Second image) with a very pale leading edge to the dorsal and a high degree of scarring on the right side of the dorsal. Look closely and you'll also see scars on the right of the body near the head. One observed behaviour I've not seen before (top image) was one of the adults swimming along with just it's head out of the water for some sixty metres or so, the rest of the body submerged at a 45 degree angle, more seal like than dolphin.

Not a long encounter but usefull in as much as it shows that different mothers are possibly resting their calves in the bay.
Enjoy the pics.