Mutual Of Ernie's Wild Kingdom

Sometimes, you just get a lucky shot. I had waded into the water a short ways yesterday at Robinson Preserve to get a picture of an osprey. As I was shooting him, I heard some people in kayaks behind me describing some fins in the water, wondering if they were sharks or dolphins. Since I was in the water already, I hoped they were dolphins, and that turned out to be the case. The osprey flew away and I turned my attention to where these fins were, and suddenly the water just offshore seemed to explode with activity. I pointed my camera in the right direction and saw a couple of dolphin fins sticking up from the shallow water. I started tracking them and shooting, and this is what I got. Two dolphins were playing with some fish, sheepshead to be exact. As you can see in this shot, he's tossed the fish completely out of the water. Those two pelicans saw what was going on and were high-tailing it to the spot to try and get some free lunch out of the deal. I kept shooting the dolphins for as long as I could, but this was the only time I caught them with a fish out of the water. It was a pretty impressive sight.  I'd post more pictures, but Picasa still isn't working with Blogger.  Must be a problem on my end.

Tonight's Dolphins

I was out at Quick Point Nature Preserve this evening not long before sundown and I happened to spot a few dolphin swimming by. There were several of them, and they'd all follow each other out of the water at about the same time, so I was able to get some shots. Frequently, they all emerge at the same time and then disappear, but these were playing some sort of follow the leader game that let me get some shots. Nothing too impressive, but more visible fins than usual.

I'm sure that cormorant was wondering if he'd be able to get his beak around one of these guys if he caught one.


That's a pretty distinctive mark on the dorsal fin of this one. I guess that's a good way of keeping track of the individual dolphins in a certain area. I bet with a little research, I could find out more about this individual. OK, maybe not...

Twins!

I happened to catch a couple of dolphins frolicking in the water under the New Pass bridge off Longboat Key today. I was wandering over to the Quick Point Nature Preserve when a fisherman pointed out the dolphins. I watched them from shore for a few minutes and realized they kept surfacing in about the same area. So I walked up onto the drawbridge and waited. Sure enough, I caught them coming up for air maybe five or six more times before a boat came through and disturbed them. While this is not the first time I've managed to get pictures of dolphins, these are probably the best I've gotten.

Dolphins Are Tough

There must have been ten dolphins in the water today, each one tempting me by coming up for air for a second or two, then diving back down to pop up a minute later at a random spot. Some of them were pairs, and one of the fins in the pair was smaller than the other, so I have to assume they were mother and baby. But the only shot I got with a recognizable fin out of the water was this one. That's the Rod 'N Reel Pier on Anna Maria Island in the background, and as you can tell, it was pretty close to sunset tonight. Actually, I added some of that color in ther after the fact, but not all of it. It was a pretty grey sunset, unfortunately.

Flipper!

I think this may be the best picture I ever took of a dolphin, and it's so old I don't remember when I took it. I know I was standing on the drawbridge over Longboat Pass when I took it, though. You get lots of dolphins playing in that area, and I try to watch them when I get the chance. You could see this guy heading my way, getting a little closer and a little closer each time he came to the surface. So it wasn't too hard to get this shot. I just wish I could get great pictures like this every day. And I wish the water was this green every day, too. :)

Like A Fish Out Of Water

I think I mentioned that I went to the beach for sunset tonight. Little did I know I was going to get a picture of something I'd never shot before. Seconds after the sun actually set, I noticed that there were dolphins cavorting offshore. The shot above was actually something I shot right before I noticed them, so I wasn't intending to photograph the dolphin, he just snuck into the shot. But that's not the unique shot

Apparently, the dolphins were hunting, and they herded a whole school of fish in towards shore. Well, the birds got wind of what was going on, and they started joining in the fun. Suddenly, the water seemed to boiling with fish and birds. I just started shooting like a madman, and I actually got a fish up out of the water. Look at the lower left in the shot above. He's up, out of the water, and gasping for, um, water. But there he is! This is already a crop of a larger shot, so I didn't want to zoom in too much closer, but you can see him quite clearly. I had plenty of shots of disturbed water, but this appears to be the only one you can see the actual fish in. Pretty cool, eh?

And this was just another pelican shot I found that I liked. It's easy to get them in the air, but hard to get their wings in an attractive and recognizable position.

Dolphin (Not Mahi)

I went on a company fishing trip today in the Gulf Of Mexico. We didn't catch a lot of fish, but we get a visit from some fun-loving dolphins on the trip back to the dock. There were three or four of them in the water, playing in the wake of the boat for about a mile or so. They were easily keeping up with the boat, sometimes staying just under the surface, and sometimes coming out of the water briefly like these two. I don't make it out on boats as often as I might like, but I see lots of dolphins from shore. Believe me, they look cooler when they're right there in the water beside you!

Water Sports

There was plenty of activity in the water as well as the air at Ft. DeSoto today. The cormorant above was spending a few seconds on the surface between dives when I caught him. I had to get him at just the right angle so that his turquoise eye would show up. I don't know what purpose that odd coloration serves, but it sure does look cool. The pair of dolphins below were two of a group of five or six that were playing just off the pier. They never got close enough for me to see any more of their bodies than this, though. I was pretty happy to get this much of them in the shot!

(Not A) Shark!

At first glance, especially if you've seen Jaws lately, you might think this was a shark in the waters of Sarasota Bay today. But it's just a playful dolphin, spending a little quality time on the surface. But cue the spooky music anyway, just to scare the tourists.

Speed Dolphin

There must have been four or five of these dolphins at the beach today, but man, are they fast! This was the best I could get.

A Second Glance

They say the devil is in the details, but evidently, so are the dolphins. The shot above is one of the many pictures I took Sunday. I shot it only a few minutes later than this other shot I showed you yesterday that I felt was much better. This shot was from up on a bridge about 60 feet above the waterline, and I thought it would be nice with the boat leaving a sharp white trail across the green water. It wasn't as nice as I wanted, so I breezed past it when posting last night. But today I flip by it again and notice something that I missed before. Look in the water down beneath the boat. Yep, there's a dolphin in there. You can clearly see him in the detail below. He's there in the shot before this one as well (but only as a vague shadow in the water), but not in the next shot. Those shots are only separated by about a third of a second, so this guy is fast! It was only last week that I got a semi-decent dolphin picture, so maybe my marine mammal luck is changing.

Fun With Flipper

I see dolphins fairly often while I am out and about, but I almost never get pictures of them. Today I got lucky, and this marine mammal swam across my viewfinder. He was swimming slowly and not diving very deep. so I was able to squeeze off a few shots. He swam under a bridge as I was watching him, so I ran to the other side, but he didn't come up on the far side. I continued walking along the bridge, when suddenly I start hearing voices. It turned out to be the drawbridge tender on his loudspeaker, telling me that there were dolphins on his side of the bridge! It was a little spooky... I didn't get anymore pictures of them, though.