Hi!, My Name is Hannah, and this is my Dolphins Page, Most of you know I love Dolphin's, so i've created a page for my dolphin trips

This page started 15th October 2005

Back in August BBC 2 were showing a series of programmes called "Coast". Nicolas Crane was walking around the coast lines of Britain.
One of the programme features was in Scotland. Nicolas was talking about wildlife, Birds, Seals and Harbour Porpoises, Wales, and Dolphins.
Dad was watching the whole series and as soon as dad called the words "dolphins on BBC 2" I was downstairs quicker than lightning!
Seeing the dolphins out in their natural enviroment and seeing their freedom, I turned to dad and said "I want to go there"
So as part of my 21st birthday it was a nice surprise (well actually I knew 3 weeks before)
So here is my account of Dolphin watching:

Sunday 2nd October (2005)

Myself and dad got on a plane from London Luton to Aberdeen (Dyce Airport)
We were staying at Pete McDonalds (AKA Dolphin Pete) Rainbow Hostal.
The views from the hostal were fantastic, the back rooms overlook to the sea.
That evening we watched lots of video footage of Dolphins mainly off Findochety filmed mostly by Pete.

Monday 3rd October (2005)

Dad drove us to Spey Bay to look for Dolphins, But there were none to be seen, and the WDCS centre didn't open till 10:30am, once it opened we saw a dvd of what wildlife you could see around the bay right outside.
At 11am we left the WDCS centre and heading to Buckie for the Gemini Explorer boat trip Pete had booked us onto.
We had to look at a safety video aboard the boat, then we looked at a graphic card, showing of what possible wildlife we could see today.

As we got going we saw lots of dolphins ahead. The skipper cut the engine of the boat.
The dolphins are swimming around the boat and over by the rocks. One dolphin even rid along with the boat for a minute.

the Dolphins left us and we continued our journey, before turning the boat back round, to go back to the Harbour. Even on the way back we saw more dolphins (or they were the ones we saw earlier!) but the weather was a bit colder, with more cloud covering looming overhead.

It was a brilliant trip, a must for anyone who wants to see wildlife especially dolphins.
Sadly I didn't get any great photos from the boat trip as dad had the camera and he didn't know if it was working! (although I think there maybe a blurry dolphin fin on a pic dad managed to capture!)

Tuesday 4th October (2005)

We were heading to Chanary Point, which is quite a trek.
We did dolphin watching for 45 minutes, saw something in the water, but we think it was a duck, there were lots of ducking that kept ducking in the water.
We went back to the car, had some food, and then dad did another 45 minutes of watching. I'd gone for a sleep, as I was suffering from a chill I had caught yesterday from the boat trip.
We were headed back to the hostel, but on the way taking a de-tour back to Spey Bay.
Again No sightings of any dolphins or porpoises.
Once back at the Hostel, we arrived just in time for the 6 o'clock news, only to hear that the comedian/actor Ronnie Barker had died.

Wednesday 5th October (2005)

Today was out last day in Scotland and I was determined to see more Dolphins than the 8+ from the boat trip, so Seals and a possible Porpoise on Monday.

As we had to be at Aberdeen Airport by 3pm to return the hire car, we were to go to the harbour.
On the way we passed a place called "Banff" a little village, with a great sightings of Dolphins.
We parked in front of the harbour, I was sitting in the car, digging around in my bag for my binoculars, when I saw a great big splash out at sea…. DOLPHINS… ran out of the car with my binoculars and camera, 3 dolphins heading west. Dad tried to track them with the digital camera…. But they had gone into hiding!

We gave up looking, got back in the car, and drove to Aberdeen Harbour (and even with Pete's hand drawn map dad still got lost!)
As we were getting out the car, two orange boats were going out of the Harbour. Around them I saw a Dolphin's Dorsal fin. Then by the lighthouse a Dolphin Jumps out the water, Then near the harbour entrance again 3 dolphins in a group, then we saw a few more appear.

In all I'd say there was at least 8+, there could have been calf's but I couldn't see if there were with my binoculars. (although a few days later dolphins were spotted again at the harbour with a calf).

we'd also taken a lot of video footage, the best video dad took when we first arrived, and theres me pointing to a dolphin, and it wasn't until i got home and played the video it actually leptd out of the water.
So my lovely brother screen captured it!

WOW I was so happy but after 30 minutes or so of watching, we sadly had to leave and head to the airport.

We are defiantly going back next year, and hopefully we'll go in June for a week around the longest day of the year (which is about the 21st June) so we can do a night time boat trip on the Gemini Explorer

And if you do decide to take up dolphin, whale or harbour porpoises watching a good tip: The best time you'll see dolphins is when you are not looking for them!

Related bits:

I'm friends of the Morey Firth dolphins! Come and visit there website: www. Loupers.co.uk

Also visit the Whale and Dolphin conservation society

On my Summer Holiday I went to Portugal and I was lucky enough to be able to swim with Dolphin's at a place called Zoomarine! here are pics of me swimming with different dolphins!

I didn't swim with Sam the dolphin (dolphin number7) he is an old boy, of 24 he has markings where his teeth used to be, he only has 2 left! normally when dolphins live in the sea they only live for 17 years

The water tasted of salt as that would be what they would live in, in the wild!

One of the dolphin's gave us a nice surprise!, by pooing in the water when we (in a group of people) was being showed how u could tell between a male and female!