Dolphin days of summer?

It was another hot day, so we decided to linger at the coast after work to try to avoid some of the higher temperatures inland.  With a little extra time, I decided it might be a good evening for dolphin spotting.  The ocean has been flat calm recently — good conditions for spotting dolphins near shore.

Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) aren't easy to predict in the Bodega Bay area, and I wasn't certain I'd find any, so I was a little surprised to spot one right away.

The dolphins were a little distant, and they weren't spending a lot of time at the surface, but here are few pictures for the record.  I'm guessing there were at least three different individuals.

This appeared to be an adult (left) and calf (right):

 

Pretty smooth dorsal fin, but noticeable scratches in front of the fin:

 

 

Notched dorsal fin (I'm wondering if Bill will be able to i.d. this individual?):

 

And two shots of dolphins surfacing.  Sure seemed like a good time to be a dolphin!

 

 

P.S. I'll check in with Bill Keener (Cetacean Field Research Program at The Marine Mammal Center) to see if he has any thoughts about the identification of these individuals. 

P.P.S.  I realize the title of this post isn't quite accurate — the "dog days" of summer don't begin until July 3rd, but I couldn't resist the title, especially given the heatwave we've been experiencing.  Stay cool!