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Dolphin's christmas present

by Scarlet Colley - January, 2000

Sharing encounters with our dolphin family here on south padre continues to keep Capt. Colley and I in awe. We started giving our encounters four and five stars and now we have to give them six and seven as our dolphins keep amazing us more and more. Their interactions with each other and our groups are simply incredible. On Christmas Day Colley knew that one of the presents on the wishlist was a private dolphin watch for the Mrs. So when 5:00 rolled around our Skimmer left the dock hoping to encounter dolphins before sunset. We seemed to be one of the few boats on the water and with practically no wind, the bay was flat calm. As we rounded dolphin point, we could see dolphins in the pass almost to the end of the jetties. They must have heard us coming for within minutes they came toward us, under us and went up into Colley Cove. Our little Heather was with us and we jokingly told her that they had done this so we would turn around and see them jump into the sunset. When she let out a shout of joy and started jumping up and down we know that they had indeed done just what we kidded about and we missed it looking toward the channel. Heather had her Christmas wish to see a dolphin jump, at that point not realizing the gift they were about to give the three of us and our little dolphin dog angel, who comes out with us and actually watches for them!!!!!!!

We turned the Skimmer to watch for another leap and as we didn't see them we headed for the shipping channel thinking they were going west . It was so quiet and with our Honda four stroke barely making a sound, we admired the mirror look of the bay and new we had ideal conditions to be with the dolphins if they wanted to be with us. Not sure which way they went, we glided along when suddenly on each side of our skimmer there they were. Then Heather squealed, they were right on the bow not just one or two but seven or eight. Angel , on her little chair, tail wagging was as excited as the three of us looking over the bow not believing our eyes. We have had two or three on our bow before but never this many . But then the real gift came. Colley was the first to hear it and quickly said to listen. We had been so excited about them all being there that we were talking to them and hadn't thought about being able to hear them. And there it was, the most beautiful sound of not one but eight dolphins singing with their high high pitch. They continued this for some time as we barely moved along and being so close we could hear them so well. As you can imagine, we were in complete awe including Angel. Never before had we heard them except by hydro phone over a speaker with Capt. JoeLee. This was truly a magical time and a gift from our dolphins that is one we will never forget. It seemed as if they were singing a Christmas song to us and when they finished their song they stayed with us until the sun set, leaping around us so close that a passing by fisherman turned back around thinking we had a big fish on!!!

It was an encounter that we wished we could have shared with all. We still wonder how they new it was such a special day of gift giving and what a gift they gave for last Christmas of the century. And to start the New Year off we had another incredible encounter as our dolphins stayed with us for over an hour literally dancing around our boat. Thank goodness I had my video camera to capture it on film. And we would also like to pay our respects to a very dear lady we all loved so that left us on Jan. 4 at the age of 95, Our own turtle lady Ila Loetscher. So many of us had the privilege of knowing her and seeing her efforts to save a sea turtle turn into the islands Sea Turtle inc. She has left a legacy for us all and her program on saving the kemps ridley and other sea turtles is now being carried on by volunteers at the temporary facility across from the Tiki. A new facility is planned for the near future. The Sea turtle programs are on Tuesdays and Saturdays at 10:00. You can hear all about Ila, her remarkable life and the plight of her beloved endangered sea turtles.

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