MarkS
24-07-2010, 19:29
Had a brief sea watch from Ras Dibba yesterday, right opposite Dibba Rock. Not much at all in the way of bird species, apart from a few distant Bridled Terns and an Osprey on top of the rock, but witnessed the somewhat surreal sight of a small ray leaping out of the water doing back-flips!
At first, I thought I had seen the tail fin of a dolphin disappearing back into the water, but then the thing leapt again as if someone was tossing it around like a pancake. Didn't get much on it to help with an ID, even though it wasn't more than 50m offshore, but it appeared to be almost uniformly mid-grey - whether I was looking at the upper or underside, I have no idea. It was all I could do to work out what I had just seen. Size was probably about 2-3 feet across.
Not a hope of ID-ing it on the split-second view I got, but it was definitely the most exciting thing I saw on the East coast on yet another miserable day for seawatching. Anyone know why rays leap like this?
At first, I thought I had seen the tail fin of a dolphin disappearing back into the water, but then the thing leapt again as if someone was tossing it around like a pancake. Didn't get much on it to help with an ID, even though it wasn't more than 50m offshore, but it appeared to be almost uniformly mid-grey - whether I was looking at the upper or underside, I have no idea. It was all I could do to work out what I had just seen. Size was probably about 2-3 feet across.
Not a hope of ID-ing it on the split-second view I got, but it was definitely the most exciting thing I saw on the East coast on yet another miserable day for seawatching. Anyone know why rays leap like this?