What is more, it returned again over the next couple of days. Myself, Simon Wood and Carla Davis were lucky enough to be able to watch it for over two hours on Friday (27th Oct). It later transpired that it had also been seen and photographed a couple of days earlier, off Maylandsea on Wednesday (25th Oct).
It seemed to be following a set pattern of behaviour, appearing on the rising tide and hunting in the channels before heading out again, shortly after peak tide. A plausible theory is that it was following fish (most likely Grey Mullet) as they were also coming in with the tide, much as we suspect the occasional Harbour Seals that we see locally are doing.
We were initially worried about the potential of stranding but the fact that it was repeatedly diving and had no listlessness about it led us to think it may have been fairly healthy. Its forays towards the shallows looked as though they might have been tactics to coral its prey, making it easier to catch.
It was giving the occasional passing boat a wide berth. Perhaps the disturbance from the increase in river traffic over the weekend led it to seek feeding grounds elsewhere, following the last reported sighting off the Prom on Saturday 28th.
This is the first record of a dolphin that we are aware of anywhere around Maldon and Heybridge. Interestingly however, on 16th May this year, a pod of four Common Dolphin were seen and videoed on the River Crouch, off North Fambridge. It is possible that ‘our’ dolphin may have been associated with these ones.
The only regular cetacean to be found in the Blackwater is the Harbour Porpoise. Sadly the only porpoise records as far upstream as Maldon so far have been tideline corpses. With numbers apparently increasing in the outer estuary, we eagerly await our first live porpoise encounter within the patch. But we can hardly complain after our recent dolphin experience!
(All photos copyright John Buchanan)