Tag: Dolphins

#movement

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One of the Art groups I’m in wanted us to post a picture based on the prompt #movement. This was from my imagination after swimming with a wild dolphin called Georges. It had swum into a bay where we were caravanning and stayed around after the rest of his pod had gone. There was a notice the next day saying you shouldn’t swim with him because he was over friendly and dolphins can pass on pneumonia from the droplets from their blowhole. Anyway. I loved painting this and have great memories of swimming with a dolphin!

Memory of Dolphin Island

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About fifty years ago I used to watch ‘Flipper’ on the TV. A 1960’s show it was all about the adventures of a dolphin called Flipper. I didn’t know then that there was more than one dolphin and I think I remember reading they were not well looked after during filming?

I remember finding a book in the library called ‘Dolphin Island’ by Arthur C Clarke. It had the effect of waking an interest in science in me. I remembered a boy being shipwrecked and rescued by dolphins. He ends up on a Pacific Island and goes through several more adventures until the inevitable happy ending.

Recently someone mentioned the book so I decided to order a second hand copy. What I got was bitter sweet memories. The book was a lot shorter than I remembered. I read it in a couple of nights. The adventures that had been in it are now seen through older eyes. Where I had been on the edge of my seat, the tension was no longer there. It was still interesting, and I would love to know if there is any chance of finding a dolphin language. But I don’t think I will re-read it. This is an old fashioned Children’s Book. Give me 2001 a space odessey any day.

Talking about dolphins…

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Just to be awkward.. an Orca I drew at the sketchfu website. Simple tools so its a bit blurry. I’m not sure, but I think Orcas (killer whales) may eat Dolphins?

I know they are very intelligent. Often swim in pods (groups) and use various techniques to catch fish. one of their skills is to collaborate in a group to blow thousands of bubbles, their actions create a “bubble net” that enclose a school of fish and then they grab the fish that have been surrounded.

I also know thwy are Mammals and evolved on land before returning to the water, hence they have blow holes to breathe through the tops of their heads. Their front fins are formed adapted like paddles, but the bone structure is similar to that of a hand. I think I remember that they even have vestigial leg bones attached to their pelvises?

Orcas, Dolphins, and other whales are all part of a family of mammals called Cetaceans. They are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet, and humans have almost driven some of them to extinction or actually hunted some of them to extinction. I still think Whaling should be banned.

More animal drawings

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I have posted some more of my old drawings for you. As you can see I have lots of ideas, some of them come from photographs I have seen in magazines, others are from my imagination. I have a few more left, so I might post them later in the week.

I hadn’t seen the slideshow option before, hope you like it.

I do like dolphins, I swam with a wild one a few years ago. We were on holiday and came back to the caravan site in the late afternoon. There were a pod of dolphins in the sea. I got in the sea …I only took my shoes and glasses off…. then swam out about 20 yards. One dolphin stayed near the beach, it kept swimming near me. There were people in wet suits further out, and people in the shallows,  me in the middle…..I can’t say it was spiritual, but it was amazing.

The next day there was a warning sign saying that the dolphin was called Georges who was an adolescent male. He had hurt himself because he was too curious and had been hurt by propellers on boats.  Apparently you could catch illnesses like pneumonia from the damp air from his blow hole.

I didn’t care…. I had a wonderful experience.