Welcome visitors

Watching dolphins leap out of the water on our bow wave or swim beneath the boat and leap out of the water on the other side excites us all.

Quite often when we are out in our boats we are looking for them, hoping to see them.

Having them visit the marina without warning is really something else. The dolphins we have had in the Yarra and its surrounds recently have delighted all who have seen them. We have had dolphins at Yarra’s Edge on a number of occasions during past months. This tells me that the marine life here is good.

I watch with amazement these wonderful creatures herding schools of fish amongst the boats and the docks as if they were sheep dogs herding sheep. Clearly they are feeding here and will probably keep returning to us.

On one occasion we had a wedding party having photos taken with the boats and marina as a backdrop when two dolphins broke the water right behind them. I called to them to look behind them which they did excitedly. Their photographer shifted his focus from the bride and groom to the dolphins but they disappeared with tantalising speed before he could get a photo.

Our most recent visitors, eight in total, were herding and feeding in what we call the lagoon between the marina and the boardwalk adjacent to the Webb Bridge.

The spectators that gathered quickly to watch the “show” were all impressed. However one “resident”, our tame duck (the quacking type) clearly was not happy with the intruders to its territory. The duck and our resident swans are favourites with children who feed them.

When the dolphins broke the water for the first time the duck immediately retreated to an exposed pile beneath the boardwalk where it perched and started quacking and screeching franticly in what we guessed was its disapproval to the visit by the dolphins.

Its vocal outburst continued while the dolphins worked the lagoon before they disappeared downstream.

The duck didn’t reappear, although we continued to hear it. But then, like everyone else, we were more interested in where the dolphins might turn up next. 

The duck was back next day.