It didn’t look good. I am always uneasy about complaining about anything on a sunny day, for fear of provoking the ever-present rain gods, but I must confess that I was beginning to grumble. I’d had just been on a boat that had spent two and a half hours cruising around the Shannon Estuary looking for bottlenose dolphins with nary a sign of one.
The harbour at Kilrush is tidal and the water level is maintained by lock gates. Our boat was in the lock-gate, about to return to harbour, when the word came through that a group of up to 30 dolphins had been seen further up the estuary swimming downstream. The boatman asked us a simple question – did we want to go back ?
So off we went again, past Scattery Island and out into the estuary, close to the Moneypoint power station. After about 45 minutes, we saw them – a dozen or so dark fins slowly moving through the water. The captain of the boat eased the craft close to the dolphins and then stopped. The dolphins didn’t pay much attention to us but, on a beautiful, hot, calm autumn evening, it was a magical experience to see so many dolphins up close.
Most of the dolphins hardly broke the surface, but one had a calf – a baby that leaped clear of the water to keep up with its mother. Twice, an adult dolphin leaped clear of the surface – alas, I didn’t get a picture. The second time, the autofocus on the lens let me down – it ‘hunted’ [searched for a focus point]at just the wrong time. The first time, I had the dolphin lined up and just as I was pushing the button on the camera to take the picture, another passenger on the boat picked the moment to jump up in excitement [at the sight of the leaping dolphin] and whacked her head off my camera lens. I didn’t get the picture and luckily, she didn’t get concussion.
These are still glorious photos … I watched them as a slide show. You’re fortunate to be able to go out and watch them like that. I remember, many years ago, reading about Fungie but he can’t possibly be still around. I think that was outside Dingle..