A highlight of my trip to South Texas for the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was a pontoon boat trip on Laguna Madre Bay with Scarlet Colley of the The South Padre Island Dolphin Research and Nature Center. We arrived at the dock in Port Isabel just at sunrise on a cloudy morning.
Sunrise at Port Isabel
Six of us boarded the pontoon boat with Scarlet and Dan Jones, an excellent local birding guide.
As we cruised slowly around the harbor, Brown Pelicans seemed to be everywhere.
Brown Pelican
Black-necked Stilts waded in the shallows.
Black-necked Stilt
A Great Blue Heron was fishing in the harbor…
Great Blue Heron
… and a Common Tern hunted overhead.
Common Tern
Black Skimmers were resting on the sand bars, occasionally making forays out over the bay.
Black Skimmer
Once we were out on the bay, we saw many wading birds:
Little Blue Heron
Whimbrel
Marbled Godwit
American Oystercatcher
I am always excited to see Roseate Spoonbills with their lovely pink color and prehistoric faces.
Roseate Spoonbills
Roseate Spoonbills fly overhead
There were groups of Red Knots feeding on the sand bars in the bay.
Red Knots
As we headed farther out into the bay Rozzi, Scarlet’s dog, began to bark excitedly.
Rozzi
We soon saw the cause of her excitement …
Bottlenose Dolphin
… but I will save that for another post.
Great post. Next time take me with you.
You’re just going to have to get down there Bob! See you next year at the RGVBF!
A wonderful collection! I particularly like the first Oyster Catcher pic!
Thanks Cindy. That’s actually a Black Skimmer. It was fascinating watching them skim along the surface of the water feeding. Loved those birds!
Terrific series of beautiful birds … a dog and a dolphin. Love the Black Skimmer in flight shot. We saw lots of Roseate Spoonbills down in Florida recently. They really are lovely birds. Great images, Linda! Looking forward to your Bottlenose Dolphin post!
Thanks Julie. I enjoyed my trip to South Texas so much! Great birding, great people, great event. I recommend it highly!
Howdee Linda~Awesome birds there! Hope to go some year…humm ..maybe next..could fly out there.
You should go. I’d love to see you there. Still thinking I’ll go to the Biggest Week in Birding in May. Can’t wait to see you and Darling Jeff again.
Love those birds, looks like a super outing, and very cool a dolphin – they almost made me a marine biologist
It was a wonderful outing! Dolphins are fascinating, aren’t they? You would have been a wonderful marine biologist!!
Lots of good memories of the festival
Thanks Dave. It was really nice meeting you there!
Nice photos, Linda!
Thanks Scott!