Today we spent some lovely time with our resident species of dolphins. We started with a large group of bottlenose dolphins which surprised and pleased our whale watchers with high breaches.
Later we met a nice group of Risso’s dolphins including adults and young individuals. They were very clam and synchronized in their surfacing patterns, and once in a while were diving deeper showing their tailstocks. However, they were reappearing at the surface shortly after indicating they were not foraging. Actually, Risso’s dolphins are known to feed mostly at night when the zooplankton migrate at the surface attracting larger predators. In this way the dolphins can easily get access to their favourite prey, the squid, which dwells in deeper waters during daylight hours.
The smaller common dolphins were also around. A relatively large group of about 40 individuals was foraging in association with shearwaters, both Cory’s and Great ones. These are distinguishable by the different colour of their bills, yellow in the former and black in the latter, which has also a darker cap on its head and a white band on its tail.
From left to right: Cory’s shearwaters (Calonecrris diomedea borealis) and Great shearwater (Puffinus gravis). Illustrations by Les Gallagher
Where are the migratory species? Will we meet them tomorrow? Looking forward to find it out 😉
