Good Time Charters

Here is one of our many photos of one of the resident dolphins in our bay, “Notch” and her calf. We have been observing her for a few years now and we are quite fond of her. She often will swim and do acrobatic leaps near our boat with her calf alongside. Some days she is a little stand-offish towards us but this morning she was very social and interactive with us. What a wonderful display she gave us this beautiful morning on our Coastal Sealife, dolphin, and shelling cruise. Besides dolphin, we also spotted racoon, a huge flock of roseate spoonbills, night herons, and anhingas. On the shell island we found many seastars, many were still alive but there were a few that our passengers were able to keep. We can only hope that our passengers enjoyed the tour as much as we did.

Another beautiful morning on the water. Still a bit chilly with the north winds but the wildlife didn’t seem to mind. We found numerous live starfish on the shell island this morning and one that was not live for a keepsake.

We had a great dolphin show this morning on our Coastal Sealife, dolphin, and shelling cruise. We were all bundled up and cold on the water but the wildlife and dolphins were abundant and playful. Lots of shells and cool sealife around the island. Besides tons of whelks and conchs, we found a spiny sea star, a nine armed sea star, sea urchins, stone crab, and some horseshoe crabs. We find new treasures every day.

What a great morning for this cruise. We started out with a little fog that quickly burnt off once that warm Florida sun rose high. The dolphins were very playful all morning and played in our wake on the way to our shelling island. The McDowells were on board celebrating their wedding anniversary and they got a great cruise abundant with wildlife. We stopped at the bird rookery islands and found many magnificant frigates, pelicans, egrets, and herons. We also saw some roseate spoonbills and a racoon foraging for oysters around Coon Key. While shelling, we found some starfish along with some whelks and conchs. The starfish and live whelks were realeased, but the empty conchs and whelks were beautiful for the taking. The Gulf was calm for the return home and a lone dolphin played in our wake on the way back in.

Wow, there was tons of wildlife out this morning on our Coastal Sealife, dolphins and Shelling cruise. The dolphins were playful and the manatees were around too. Found some night herons resting in the mangrove trees and some nice shells at the beach. While the dolphins were playing near our boat I managed to grab this great shot of two jumping together.

WooHoo, were the dolphins playful on our recent morning dolphin shelling cruise. Notch is a female dolphin in this resident pod that we identify by the notch at the tip of her dorsal fin. Her pod followed us through the bay playing in our wake. I was able to catch a few pics of them.

We have just had an amazing summer so far with abundant wildlife in Estero Bay. We have two mother manatees that we have been spotting during some of our tours; One has twins, the other with a single calf. The roseate spoonbills are just beautiful and here for the summer. These pictures were provided by Bonnie Buyea who recently brought her family of 12 out with us on our Coastal Sealife, Dolphin, and shelling cruise. They were a real pleasure to have out on the water with us. The sea star was alive and released and it was great for the kids to learn about live shells and why they are important. Mrs. Buyea also got a great photo of one of the roseate spoonbills we saw that morning.

My Jr Naturalists found this huge horse conch along with hermit and calico crab, and a variety of other species on this recent Coastal Sealife and shelling wildlife cruise. The horse conch was safely returned and they also found some nice sand dollars to keep. We also observed a dolphin playing with a stick along the way. On the way in we spotted this beautiful yellow crowned night heron. What a fun cruise!