Day 85 – Dolphin Connection dolphin tour

Darlene — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:01:48 +0000

I was searching the internet for dolphin tours in the Portland area, and somehow I came across The Dolphin Connection. A husband and wife team, Irv and Sonya Strong, that have been taking people out to MEET the dolphins for something like 16 years. They know many of them by sight and have named them – and the dolphins know their boat and their sounds too. They are located in Ingleside on the Bay, TX – basically around the corner of the bay from our RV park.

Their blog says they have their business up for sale and this might be the last year for them doing this, so I booked us in. We were supposed to go on the Monday but it was way too windy and in the little boat they use, we’d have been tossed around the waves in an undesirable manner. So we waited a day and headed out Tuesday.

Sonya met as at the dock and right away we were loaded up on the boat and off we went. No formalities, no waivers to sign, no payments first – just hop in and off we went. I opted for a life jacket (with my paranoia of water) while Rob opted for none. It was just us two and them – perfect.

Dolphin Connection - Sonya and Irv

See Dolphins or It’s Free

They talked about the dolphins and that their usual schedule has been a bit “off” lately, so we were sure if we’d see any today or not. They guarantee an encounter with them or you don’t have to pay – hence why no prepayment was done before we boarded the boat – sweet. Personally I’d rather pay and see them, then go out and see nothing for free.

Irv took us around the bay, looking in the spots where the dolphins usually hang out at this time of day. They have patterns and tend to hang out in groups he said, but their pattern wasn’t following the usual routine in the last couple weeks so they were having a hard time predicting where and when to find them. It’s a big ocean – lots of water to cover in a small boat.

We eventually did find one guy, but he wouldn’t come close enough for Sonya to touch him, he was playing coy with us. But Irv did show us a cool trick where he speeds up the boat and the dolphin basically body surfs inside the wake. We watched him do it for a while. Not sure if it’s playing to them, they’re very playful animals, or an easy effortless way for him to get from point A to point B. It’s like a kid putting on roller skates and bumper riding, same concept.

Riding the wake of the boat

We did see a couple more but nothing close enough for us to touch. They just were not in the mood today and we didn’t find the big group Irv was looking for. We still had a great trip though and as was indicated we were not required to pay, but voluntary donations towards gas were welcomed. We left them some money anyway.

Also saw lots of pelicans, of course

Saw quite a few really large cargo ships too.

We said our goodbyes and thanked them for the ride and I took a few photos on the beach before we headed out. I’m really hoping they hang in there for another year so we can go back in 2011 and give it another go with them. Yup, that’s my intention – they will be there and we’ll go again and see the whole herd/tribe/gang – whatever it is you call a group of dolphins.

Texas sunset

Fish bones on the beach, left by the fisherman that cleaned and filleted them here

I thought it was pretty, even with the fish carcass

If you’re in the Corpus Christi or Portland Texas area, I highly recommend doing this dolphin tour. It’s only $25 per person and you get a small personalized tour with people who know and love the dolphins.

Whooping Crane Birding Tour in Rockport

Rob — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:54:40 +0000

Whooping cranes summer in Alberta Canada, just north of where we live, so while we were wintering in Texas in our RV, we thought it appropriate to see where they winter too. We found a Whooping Crane Birding tour in Rockport Texas, so decided to go after our last event in the Seabreeze RV Park Olympic games.

Sandhill cranes in flight

There were so many of them, It was practically a Sandhill crane tour too. These are some sandhill cranes we saw while heading out into the Gulf.

The Wharf Cat

The Wharf Cat and it’s sister ship, the Scat Cat are two very large catamaran boats that operate out of Fishermans Wharf in Port Aransas Texas. They offer day long fishing trips, sunset dolphin tours and from November through March, take birding tours to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to visit the winter nesting ground of the Whooping Crane.

The whole area of Rockport, Corpus Christi and Portland Texas are great birding tour areas. In port alone we saw seagulls (of course) and many egrets.

Fishermans Wharf

Darlene and I first stumbled upon Fishermans Wharf on our first trip to Port Aransas. As we toured the dock area there, we saw a fishing trip that has just come back. They hooked up and displayed all the fish from the fishing trip aboard the Wharf Cat in front of their sign.

After seeing its sheer size, we knew Dar would feel safe enough to go on a tour. It’s a two level boat, air conditioned, with two heads and a beverage bar inside.

Whooping Crane Tour

We found out that there are two types of tours. One that starts from their location here in Port Aransas, two days a week and the other Whooping Crane tour in Rockport, which leaves three days a week. Basically, the boat has to sail up past the Rockport to get to the Wildlife Refuge, so can begin at either location. We choose the tour in Rockport simply because it would give us less travel time on the boat, and focus squarely on the whooping cranes.

Whooping Cranes

We saw a bunch of different types of seagulls, blue herons, terns, egrets, cormorants, roseate spoonbills, brown and white pelicans, sandhill cranes, dolphins and of course whooping cranes. As I mentioned earlier, it was as much a sandhill crane tour as it was any other bird.

Blue heron in port

... and a moment later, heron in flight

Growing up in small town Saskatchewan, my father was a hunter and taught firearm safety. He did so for over 25 years and I came to appreciate the whooping crane in a whole different way. I recall him having a patch sewn to his coat that displayed “Save the whooping crane” because of its place on the endangered species list. There are said to be only 250 of them left in the wild.

Dar here: from what I remember there are only 3 wild flocks left with this one being the only MIGRATING flock anywhere in the world. So they take good care of these birds to try and ensure their survival. We saw evidence of conservation efforts but unfortunately for the birds, this year was a bad year for their food (the blue crab) so they were having a hard time finding food. That doesn’t bode well for the poor whoopers. Made me not want to eat blue crab ever again.

A pair of whooping cranes in flight as they passed in front of our boat

Imagine our amazement as we neared Matagorda Island and saw two “whooping cranes in flight”, as our birding tour narrator Ray called out on the Wharf Cat’s speaker system. The two cranes flew across the channel in front of our boat and landed in the marsh area about 100 feet from our location. Simply amazing!

The magestic Whooping Crane

Ray our Birding Tour Expert

As a special little treat, and part of our Whooping Crane tour, the Wharf Cat staff provide the services of a professional birder who gives the riders some insight into the birds we’re seeing. Ray was easily in his 70′s and an excellent source of information. We enjoyed Ray’s narration and explanations of what we were seeing or could possibly see. He cracked the odd joke and simply kept us very interested and entertained with our birding tour.

As we headed back to Rockport, we enjoyed the sea breeze and kept our eyes peeled for dolphins. We eventually saw some.

Dar here: Ray also explained how to tell the difference between the sandhill and whooping cranes, as the sandhills are often mistaken for whoopers. The Sandhills do not have the distinctive red patch on their head that the whoopers do, and the whoopers feathers are much whiter as are they larger than the sandhills.

Arriving safely back in Rockport, we chose to drive around the area a bit more stopping in Fulton to see the Fulton Mansion which was closed, and then just to drive along the shoreline. We saw, more birds, of course, pelicans this time. They were off the pier across from the Waters Edge RV Park in Fulton, which we had originally looked at as a possible RV park on the Gulf of Mexico. From what we saw, it looks like a good location and has its own private fishing pier complete with pelicans.

A whooping crane birding tour was not something I had ever thought I’d be doing. The birds were something I grew up knowing about but had never seen. As the cranes migrated from my home province of Alberta, all the way down here to Texas, I thought it fitting that I should take the opportunity for the birding tour. It was a day well spent. We would easily recommend the Wharf Cat tour operators as they were professional, educated and had a good operation going. If you’re in the area and looking for a whooping crane tour, Look them up www.WharfCat.com

Young Snowbirds » boat tour