Risso\u2019s dolphins<\/a>. A pod of four surfaced stage left, injecting the scene with breathtaking energy; their stout, torpedo-shaped, pale grey bodies surging forth, tall dark dorsal fins ripping the limpid sea apart. One after another, they breached clear of the water, their power and scale full blown, heightened by the intimacy of the bay. A thrilling display \u2013 but also, scientifically, a purposeful, non-verbal signal of their intrinsic fitness to potential mates and competitors. In midsummer, Risso\u2019s migrate from the pelagic deeps into the relatively shallow shelf waters of\u00a0the Celtic Sea, perhaps providing more opportunities for social interactions.<\/p>\nDusk over the bay, Ynys M\u00f4n. Photograph: Nigel Brown<\/p>\n
Within moments it seemed the pod had motored beyond the compass of the bay, leaving its waters calm again. You might care to imagine, however, to what degree those leaps of nature\u00a0perturbed the ocean, and briefly brought additional wavelets to the shore, swashing the sand in pearly, tingly froth and the sound of shell upon shell. Dolphin energy bathing the spectator\u2019s feet and sounding the maritime air with echoes of sea creatures.<\/p>\n
The spectator and I wandered home across the dunes. In the half light, the parabolas of marram grass loomed large. In the slacks, a midsummer night\u2019s dream: thousands of marsh helleborines, their pale pink and cream blooms waxing in the waning light, their frilly lips as light as tissue. Research has demonstrated that helleborine flowers attract diurnal pollinators \u2013 solitary wasps, bumblebees, hoverflies \u2013 in part due to aromatics in their nectar, such as vanillin. But few if any researchers appear to have\u00a0wandered these dunes at night in search of nocturnal pollinators such as moths \u2013 they should; it might help unlock some\u00a0of the remaining mysteries of pollination.<\/p>\n
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian\u2019s Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com<\/a> and get a 15% discount<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eventide, and calm waters were slowly departing the warm sands of a small bay in Ynys M\u00f4n. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-4993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}