A NEW QUAY dolphin guide is celebrating the return to more coastal waters of the resident Cardigan Bay dolphins.

Joshua Padley, a wildlife guide for SeaMor Dolphin Watching Boat Trips, managed to snap these images of dolphins breaching at New Quay on Monday from the coastal path.

He said: “Our trips start for the season today (1 April).

"In the winter months there is a period of time when our local population of dolphins move away from Cardigan Bay and sightings become less frequent. "They tend to return around late March / early April.”

Joshua says that flipping out of the water was most likely a courtship ritual.

He says: “The main behaviours being shown were of a more energetic nature. They were mating.

“Dolphins are one of the few species other than humans that will mate for pleasure, not just reproductive purposes, so as you can imagine, they display these mating behaviours a lot.

“Lots of energetic breaching then took place as the dolphins frolicked away. Which gave us the opportunity to capture the photos of the dolphins fully out of the water.”