Whooping Crane Festival

02/12/2025

✨ Speaker Highlight: Tiffany Kersten ✨

Tiffany Kersten is a Wisconsin native. She holds a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology from Northland College and has spent over a decade as an environmental educator, teaching about bird migration with the Cape May Bird Observatory, monitoring shorebirds on Cape Cod, banding Honeycreepers in Hawaii, and finally landing in South Texas where she worked at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and then managed the McAllen Nature Center. After completing her Lower 48 States Big Year in 2021, she founded her own company, Nature Ninja Birding Tours. She guides primarily in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and offers international tours as well.

Get your tickets: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

02/11/2025

Get your tickets for Whooping Crane Festival!

These events and more are still available for next week. Buy your tickets now to secure your spot and join in on a whooping good time at the 2025 Whooping Crane Festival!
🔹 “Birdie Big Year: Elevating Women Birders” featuring Tiffany Kersten
🔸 Explore Local Waterways
🔹 Sunset Wine & Dolphin Cruise
🔸 Candle making class
🔹 Birds of Prey Show by Wildlife Revealed
🔸 Photography Lessons on the Water
🔹 Wine, Whine, and Design
🔸 Nature Preserve Workday

Click here to get tickets for these events and more: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

02/10/2025

Thank you to the Roseate Spoonbill level sponsor for the 2025 Whooping Crane Festival! 🎉

This amazing event would not be possible without the generosity of these businesses. Get ready to enjoy a whooping good time at this year's festival!

02/07/2025

Don't miss the Whooping Crane Boat Tour! 🛥️

This tour goes to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and is one of the most popular events of the Whooping Crane Festival. The lowest impact way to see Whooping Cranes, other birds and wildlife is from the water looking onto the Refuge. And there is no better way to see them than in the comfort of the Wharf Cat or S**t Cat. These boats have an enclosed area with seating, plus upper and lower deck levels to get splendid views. Binoculars are highly recommended. This is a great opportunity to photograph Whooping Cranes in their natural habitat.

Secure your spot now: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

02/03/2025

Thank you to the Whooping Crane level sponsors for the 2025 Whooping Crane Festival!🎉
This amazing event would not be possible without the generosity of these businesses. Get ready to enjoy a whooping good time at this year's festival.

01/28/2025

✨ Event highlight: Wine, Whine, & Design ✨

Get ready for some fun! Let your inner artist out during this session, taught step by step by a local artist. Nibble on snacks and sip on wine while your canvas comes to life! Limited space, so reserve early.

Click here to sign up: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/24/2025

✨ Event highlight: "Birdie Big Year: Elevating Women Birders" featuring Tiffany Kersten✨

Tiffany Kersten didn't set out to do a Big Year, but after a series of unanticipated and serendipitous events, she suddenly found herself amidst one. As a sexual assault survivor, she spent 2021 traveling to all corners of the Lower 48 States, tallying birds and gifting personal safety alarms to women she met along the way. Her goal was to see 700 species, and to raise awareness of women's safety in the outdoors. She ended up surpassing her goal and setting a new record, of 726 species. In her presentation, Tiffany will lead us through the fear, empowerment, struggles, and healing that all played vital roles in the personal growth she experienced on this wild adventure.
Purchase tickets now: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/23/2025

✨ Event highlight: Whooping Crane Boat Tour ✨

This tour goes to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. The lowest impact way to see Whooping Cranes, other birds, and wildlife is from the water looking onto the Refuge...and there is no better way to see them than in the comfort of the Wharf Cat or S**t Cat. These boats have an enclosed area with seating, plus upper and lower deck levels to get splendid views. Binoculars are highly recommended. This is a great opportunity to photograph Whooping Cranes in their natural habitat!

What's included:
*boat ride to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
*guides on board to help spot and identify birds

Click here to sign up: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/16/2025

✨Event Highlight: Saving Whooping Cranes Sunrise Beach Cleanup and Birding with Houston Zoo and Dallas Zoo✨

Please join Dallas Zoo and Houston Zoo for the Saving Whooping Cranes Sunrise Cleanup and Birding! At the cleanup, you will work together to restore the waterways that flow into the Whooping Cranes’ wetland habitat. According to IUCN, at least 80% of the litter found in marine habitat originates from human-inhabited shorelines. With this cleanup, the group hopes to do their part by picking up one piece of litter at a time. To celebrate the cleanup’s success, Benjamin Jones will lead the group in sunrise birding, so don’t forget your binoculars!

Sign up now: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/14/2025

✨ Event highlight: “Exploring the Relationships Between Whooping Cranes and Indigenous Peoples in South Texas” with Rose Elizondo ✨

Since time immemorial, whooping cranes and indigenous peoples have coexisted along the Texas Gulf coast.

The Indigenous people of the Coastal Bend did not leave a written record of their lifeways and practices. They did leave behind their cultural artifacts like pottery shards, arrowheads, musical instruments, and jewelry fragments which now serve as archaeological records. Artifacts along the whooping crane migration path offer hints of the connections between Indigenous people and whooping cranes dating back thousands of years.

Click here to sign up or learn more: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/11/2025

✨ Event highlight: "Candle Making Class” with Vida Caña Rum ✨

Join Vida Caña Rum for a delightful evening of creativity and relaxation at their candle making class, where you'll learn to craft your own unique candles using repurposed Vida Caña glass bottles. As you create, enjoy sipping on a refreshing Birds of Paradise cocktail. It's the perfect opportunity to unwind, learn a new skill, and take home your personalized candle. Reserve your spot today and indulge in this soothing blend of craft and cocktail! Ticket includes one cocktail and all materials for one candle.

Book now: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/09/2025

✨ Event highlight: Birds of Prey Show by Wildlife Revealed✨

The king's royal falconer will don his hunting garb, and take you one a thrilling trip into the past, explaining, and demonstrating the use of falcons, hawks, owls and more in the ancient sport of falconry! Your audience will listen in the kings English as fascinating bits of history are delivered while a hawk flies overhead in a simulated hunt! Guests will learn about the popularity of falconry in the renaissance and learn of other meat eating predatory birds.

Learn more or sign up here: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

01/07/2025

Making Port Aransas a better place!🫶

01/02/2025

The more you know!

01/01/2025

Happy New Year!🎉
Get your tickets for the 2025 Whooping Crane Festival today, and start your year with a whooping good time!

Purchase tickets here: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2025-festival/buy-tickets/

📸 Mary Goldsmith

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope to see you at Whooping Crane Festival in February! 🎄

12/17/2024

Whooping Crane Festival speaker Michael Forsberg! 🎤

A note from Michael: "I've spent the last five years camera-in-hand exploring the natural history of whooping cranes across the continent, meeting people who love them, and discovering how these tall, magnificent, and rarest of cranes are navigating our 21st-century world. In this multimedia presentation, I'll take you on a wild, wonderful, and sometimes heartbreaking journey from their wintering grounds along the Texas Gulf Coast to their remote nesting grounds in northern Canada, and on migration through the heart of the Great Plains. I hope you'll join me."

12/17/2024