The final treat of the Cretzschmar's Bunting twitch came after we left the Seabird colonies, when I picked up a couple of Dolphins. Soon we were all onto them & it was a party of at least half a dozen Bottlenose Dolphins. They are our largest & commoner Dolphin in inshore coastal waters, although further offshore & less commonly inshore, the smaller Short-beaked Common Dolphins can appear in larger pods. Watching any Cetacean is a treat for me. This is especially so, when they decide to jump out of the water as a couple in this group did (but unfortunately not when the camera was pointing in their direction). After we had all enjoyed the views, we started to pick up speed again & were joined for a final spell of bow-waving as we left the group. It had been a brilliant day's twitching with some great company & well worth the extra twenty quid to have a dedicated boat. Had we gone on the regular boat I do not believe we would have been able to visit the Seabird & Auk colonies or seen these Bottlenose Dolphins.
Bottlenose Dolphin: They were bow-waving close to the boat
Bottlenose Dolphin: They are between 2 & 4 metres long & basically all grey (paler underneath) with an obvious upper dorsal fin & a large beak. The smaller Short-beaked Common Dolphins are between 1.8 & 2.4 metres long and have a distinctive pale hourglass pattern on their sides
Bottlenose Dolphin: Showing the top of their paler underparts
Bottlenose Dolphin: Finally, two breached together: my last views of the Dolphins