Dolphin Address 17
September 7, 2004
About two years ago my good friend Keith Buchanan of www.irishdolphins.com told me that he had been playing with Dusty in the second cove. Suddenly her attention was drawn by a boat and she went for it. Keith tried to follow her, but, as he said, swam into 'a wall of water', that Dusty had whacked up with her fluke.
About the opposite happened to me a few days ago. Dusty clearly felt lazy. She slowly swam with me in large circles. To liven up things I suddenly accelerated, went under and did a few turbulent rolls. At once Dusty kicked in, dove under me and shot by, closer than ever in full speed, to jump high out of the water. Since a long time I have lost fear for her motions and it was pure beauty to see her flash by me in such a manifestation of power. Around me I saw elongated subtle silver thread eddies dancing and above me, where she had left the water, an unbridled spray of bubbles.
It was not until later that I realized I had not noticed any water displacement. She would move about half a cubic meter of water, but even at these few centimeters distance I had felt neither thrust nor suction. The water must seamlessly open and close on her streamline. One with the water.
Snails
On the submerging parts of the rocks one finds vast colonies of shellfish, mostly mussels and periwinkles. Also the meadow is teeming with snails. From tiny minuscule curves to the 'escargot' type. Off a CD about the Burren we learned that only here some 60 different species are living. The whole mountain range is composed of limestone, the calcium mortal remains of sea creatures, compressed through the ice ages by glaciers. A Walhalla of building material for snails.
Funny Lane, afterthought
Inspired by the wooden heron at the goldfish pond, we are considering to situate a cut out cardboard tourist on the shoreline of the meadow to guard our privacy.
Evolution
My neck feels stiff and hurts when I look back. Maybe this is a phase in my metamorphosis to a dolphin. Of all cetaceans only Belugas have an extra cervical vertebra that enables them to move their head sideways.
Jan Ploeg, Fanore Meadow, September 7th 2004
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