EE and I had been out in the morning for some important appointment(s)

Being in the area of the local boat harbour, and fancying a coffee, we also had an ulterior motive that we should check to ‘monitor the Great Crested Grebes ‘ that had made the harbour area home at present.

So with coffee in one hand, trusty camera in t’other, (we just happened to have the cameras in IamGrey— who’d have guessed.)

“We should only be a few minutes, and then home for lunch,” we had assured ourselves.

The local sailing school was running lessons in the safety of the harbour, so we didn’t think it would yield many Grebes.
So as the yatchees sailed out, we walked along the boardwalk.
When suddenly, and certainly, to all watching, a huge surprise, some grey shapes rolled out of the water in the harbour and made their way among the boats.
I’m not sure if the kids were squealing with fear, mock fear, or just plain enjoyment.
The pod, at least two young and adults and two or three other adults, were Burrunan dolphins (Tursiops australis), Thanks Eleanor.
Being a protected species, there are certain rules about distances of approach and the like, to protect the creatures, but it seems this pod had not read those regulations and were happy to move among the moored boats in the harbour as well as provide some extra excitement for the kids as they passed close by.
And you can only image how jealous I was of those kids, in a good way.

In the end, my coffee was cold, I’d learned a lot about how ineffective I am at predicting where a dolphin might surface and, well—look at that—over an hour or more had gone by.
What amused me somewhat was a couple of sailor-types on their floating mansion who declared, “Well, we’ve never seen dolphins here, in all the years….” to no one in particular.

Here is just a few from the day.