Fauna I

I love the beach, and not least for the opportunity it affords to observe, if not interact with, the things that live there.

There are two beach areas on the island: we stayed at the Atlantic Ocean beach side of the island, and in the mornings for high tide went to the Sound side, and in the afternoons swam on the low-tide Atlantic beach. The reason for this is that the Sound side beach is very muddy at low tide, and the beach is much steeper and the currents are stronger and more dangerous on the Atlantic side at high tide.

The Sound is known for its dolphins: every time we have gone we have seen scores of them: and this trip was no different. Unfortunately it is a rather tricky feat to photograph them, and our camera setup is not really up to the task. You can see a closeup from a couple of attempts from last year here. I haven't found any good shots from last week yet (but I haven't done a thorough job of going through all several hundred photographs either!). It is really thrilling to be swimming with my little ones, and to look over my shoulder and see a dolphin surface less than 20 yards away: they never came much closer than that (and I'd probably have been a little bit nervous had they done so!) but that was thrilling. No other word for it.

Boo and Skibo were thrilled too -- at first. By Friday, Boo's response was one of "They're just dolphins. So what??" I am pretty sure this was largely because she was in a snit about something or other.... and I hope she recovers her sense of wonder again soon:-) I think I need to find some old episodes of Flipper for her to watch!

Yours, by the Sound of it,
N.