Sunday, March 27, 2005

Dolphins in the Hudson! (D'OH!) + Pale Male Update #3

Wow. Harry posted this on the NYCKayaker listserve this morning:

"At the end of paddle to Mitsuwa I saw 2 dolphins just off of Pier 40
yesterday ( Saturday March 26) at around 4pm. The sightings lasted only a couple of seconds each but the arched grey backs and characteristic dorsal fins were unmistakable."

Cool, yeah?

Not the first time I've heard about dolphins being spotted in the area - a couple of friends saw a little one by itself when they were out a couple of years ago; plus one of the schooner captains mentioned once last summer (we may have been talking about seals coming into the area) that there was a small pod that was hanging out in the Upper Harbor a couple of years ago that a lot of the commercial boat captains had spotted. Maybe those guys are back!

Where the "D'OH" comes in is that I went on this trip (plan to write my trip report this afternoon or tomorrow - as I said Friday, I had some things I just couldn't not write about, but now it's time for me to get back to my more typical topics). But I keep my kayak at Pier 63, so I'd peeled off there. At the time Harry was spotting dolphins, I was peacefully puttering around with the lines & fenders on the Pier 63 hold dock about a mile north of there.

Ah well. At least the dock was back to looking properly secured & fendered when I left. It was a really good day overall - even after finding out I missed maybe seeing dolphins by "that much". Somehow, though, even though I didn't get to see them - it's still just neat to know that they're around.

also - www.palemale.com totally cracked me up today. Here's the text from Lincoln's post:

"To to member of The Media that inquired about Pale Male having two new mates named 'Linda #1 and Linda #6'. Please note that these are the names given to window railings on the 16th Floor of 920 Fifth Avenue on which he loves to perch. In a nutshell; Lola has been sitting on eggs fertilized by Pale Male since March 9th. Pale Male has since then been sharing nest sitting duties and hunting daily for both of them. He has, since the Fall of 2001, been unfailingly faithful to her and we look forward to hatching somewhere around April 15th."

Some poor gossip columnist got bored of Brad & Jennifer & discovered an interest in natural history, perhaps?

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