25 September 2012

Not about birds

Week 38, 21 September 2012 - Kubbar Island (Click to enlarge image)

On the weekend we had the opportunity for an afternoon at Kubbar Island with our good friends George and Michelle Lambross and our boys.

The wind had abated the day before, so weather conditions were near perfect departing from Marina Crescent. As always, we kept an eye out for birds on route with the odd Lesser Crested Tern and a few large White-headed Gulls seen.

However, the highlight of the trip was coming across a pod of between 20 - 25 Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins (a first for me in Kuwait), halfway to Kubbar. We stopped the boat and enjoyed their company as the swam around the boat for almost 20-minutes.

From Wikipedia it states that up until 1998, all Bottlenose Dolpins were considered members of the single species T.truncatus. In that year, the Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) was recognised as a separate species. T. aduncus is generally smaller than T.truncatus, has a propotionally longer rostrum and has spots on its belly and lower sides (whch we didnt see).

Here are a selection of images from this enjoyable encounter.

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops aduncus)





 
 
 
After a relaxing afternoon snorkelling and relaxing at Kubbar, we enjoyed the tranquil sunset on the return to Marina Crescent
 
Sunset over Salmiya


 


1 comment:

  1. Amazing! :)

    my family said to me once that back in the 70s and 80s, when Failaka island was an active spot, it was so common to watch the dolphins swim side by side to the ferry. You can imagine what's the situation now.
    I had once online course for fun, in Archaeology, and I did a simple research about Failaka and the excavations there, past and recent, and some of the artifacts found tell some stories about the ancient hunters who used to live by turtles and dolphins - now live by would mean either (hunting them), or considered them a lucky charm. Drawings on some artifacts just depict images of these 2 animals!

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