38. Thursday 21 March. Whales

38. Thursday 21 March. Whales

IbdMG_2131My beautiful Byron,

Today is a grey day in California. I am at a cafe near Dana Point and as I look out a group of whales is passing, heading south.  I can see them blowing water from where I am sitting. Looks like three or four. A pod of whales is what a group of whales is called.

I remember in 2014 when you were here, we went out on the Dana Point Whale watching boat together. We saw many dolphins, but no whales that day. A group of dolphins is also called a pod, although it is not uncommon to refer to a ‘school’ of dolphins.

There is a funny tradition with how groups of anything are named. Collective nouns.
Turtles for example are bale of Turtles
A zeal of Zebra’s
A school of Fish
A pride of Lions
A murder of Crows is more poetic than a flock of Crows. A horde, hover, muster, parcel are also listed as collective nouns for Crows
A tower of Giraffes
A parade of Elephants
A swarm of Bees
A bask of Crocodiles

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