Days 23 & 24 March 23-24 Rockport TX

Day 23-24, Scouring the sites near Rockport

First I had better review the Whooping Crane tour as I only had pictures for that and they did not get posted as of March 24, 2012.

The day  (Thursday) started by securing reservation for the 10:00 AM Whooping Crane  tour as they need a minimum of 10 in order to have a trip. Fortunately, there were just ten that were signed up, so it was a “GO”!  The “Wharf Cat” is a twin diesel that can get up to 28 knots on the Ocean so can move right along. The ten of us were comfortable on that two deck ship. The captain had good, but not overbearing narration and was very generous in stopping for views of the Whooping Cranes when they were close to the shore. The Crane didn't seem to be bothered as I’m sure they “know the drill”. Our first mate was Brandon and he was helpful the entire trip. As I indicated the Aransas NWR is 117,000 ares along the edges of the Intracoastal Waterway where some ships and many barges (shallow drought of less than 20 feet) can ply the waters all the way from Padre Island on the Gulf of Mexico to the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast of the USA. IT is known that the barges are the cheapest way to haul goods long distances. 

The Cranes are just about ready to go north to northern Alberta and Northwest Territories. They stay in family groups when they leave. The flight will take them to  Wood Buffalo Nat.Park., in northern Alberta  and southern Northwest Territories where  they will hatch their young and get them back to the NWR in time for winter.  There are a few other smaller habitats for the Whoopers, and a minor flyway from New Mexico to Idaho. The population is now around 400 individuals which is up from a low of 13 in the 1950’s. We allmost lost them!

It was a great trip  on the Wharf Cat and a seldom seen one. Certainly very few people have even seen the Whooping Cranes.

The Aransas NWR and Whooping Cranes winter home.
THis is located along the Intracoastal Waterwayin TX

Redhead (Duck family)

Whooping Cranes 

Redheads and some Lesser Scaups

The next two days were what we called “redoing”some areas that we had done before to see if we could pick up some species that we had not seen. As usual we continued to monitor each specie that we saw and identified each day. 

Three of the outstanding “finds” were right in or near Rockford, as on the Connie Hager Lagoon we twice saw a large raft of Redhead and Lesser Scaup of some 4-500 birds on each of two consecutive days. They were no doubt resting for the trip north in a few days., The second group was just west of town in an inauspicious mud flat where the Short Billed Dowitchers had assembled. These are flocks of birds in the 100’s to thousands. When they move, they all move at once.  They turn and twist in different loops , which is a wonder to watch. It is known that a type of “radar” is used by them to direct flight at times like this.

On the road north of Rockport, a few creeks run into the Copano Bay so allow some gathering of birds in smaller numbers in the mud flats that are near there. . Quite often there were 20-30 birds of the same species , and sometimes just a few.

Some of the species seen on those days included but were not limited to:

A Kingfisher that we saw three days in a row on the same place on a wire ,A battle between a Swainson’s and a Red Tailed Hawk, that ended in a draw, White Ibis flocks in the air of a thousand or more, Black Necked Stilts, Long Billed Curlew, Sandwich Tern, Glaucous Gull, Gull Billed Tern, Marbled Godwit, Black Skimmer, and Black Bellied Whistling Duck. (I just love to type that last four names) The first of these two days we saw 59 birds which was our best day ‘bird wise’.

Whimbrel

Driving south again and poking into side roads and all the ponds and flats we could find, we saw,  but not exclusively; Ruddy Duck, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Turnstone, a Shrike usually found  on a wire or fence, Lesser Yellow legs, Roseate Spoonbill (who is always away from the road a distance.), American Avocet, Western Meadowlark, and the Barn, Bank and Tree Swallow. That day we saw 50 different  birds in all.

Tomorrow (Sunday) will be the last day here and it’s “wrap-up” day for us, with church attendance, some laundry to do and get the trailer ready to roll on Monday AM. We will head for three days at Galveston, and then across Galveston Bay (Houston) and camp at Smith Point’s Spoonbill RV Park , for a week, which is perhaps our All Time favorite Park. Here we will hope for the songbirds return, especially at High Island and Anhuac NWR. 

Posting was good on Sunday so these went OK.