Whooping Cranes

We are still at Mustang Island State Park on February 19 and we went to the excellent Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. They have aquariums with fish from the Gulf of Mexico area and the Caribbean area and have excellent displays of fish, plants and birds of the area. We also saw a dolphin show, wild flight show and fed sting rays. We also saw two 4D movies, complete with snow, at the Aquarium.

On Thursday, the 20th, it rained pretty much all day. In the morning, we went on another van birding tour at Padre Island National Seashore but it was raining pretty hard so we could barely see out of the van windows. That afternoon we ran errands and saw the latest Star Wars, The Rise of Skywalker, Episode IX. We were in the theater with only 6 other folks. Guess that the movie has been out awhile.

Putt-Putt Golf Mustang Island

Beach walk Mustang Island

The weather cleared up the next day and we went back to Leonabelle Turnbell Nature Park in Port Aransas and saw our first two Whooping Cranes. These huge birds are about 5 feet tall and there are only about 503 of them left in the wild. In the 1960’s there were only about 16 left and it is amazing that they have returned to this number. The birds spend the winter around the Port Aransas area and summer in Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta.

On Sunday, February 23, we left Mustang Island State Park, taking a 5 minute ferry boat ride across the Port Aransas Channel, which is how large ships get into Corpus Christi, we then continued a little ways north to Goose Island State Park. This park, just across the bay from the Rockport/Fulton, area has wonderful old Live Oak Trees.

We were so excited to see shady campsites after 2 weeks on the barrier islands with few trees. However, it was sad to see all the damage Hurricane Harvey did to the area and trees in August 2017 and they are still repairing homes all over the area. 

"Centuries Old" Live Oak Tree

We spent a week here and really enjoyed it doing a lot of birding. We took 3 different hikes with park birding hosts showing different habitats at the state park - seashore, woodlands , and marsh. We also drove a ways north to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge - a huge preserve that is the winter home for the whooping cranes and essential for their recovery. Here we saw lots of birds, took hikes, climbed to the top of a viewing tower and saw 2 opossums and a bob cat.

We also took a fabulous 3-hour  boating bird tour into the water side of Aransas National Wildlife Area. The captain knew all the waterfowl and seabirds and called them out to us and would often stop the boat for closeup views.

All of this was to see the endangered whooping cranes, and they are magnificent birds!, doing there favorite winter thing - eating Blue Grabs.. Mark took over 200 pictures on the boat tour alone. 

We also visited many birding sites around the Rockport/Fulton area including a large heron rookery. 

We rode or bikes in the area around the state park and saw whooping cranes, sandhill cranes, snowy egrets, black bellied whistling ducks, roseate spoonbills and more. We also visited the beautifully restored Fulton Mansion built in 1877 which has survived many hurricanes and saw the first field of wildflowers on our trip.

Fulton Mansion built in 1877 

Paddling in Inflatable Kayak

Wildflowers

On Sunday, March 1, we moved on to San Antonio and a very nice KOA campground and we start exploring the town on Monday.