Thursday - Birding Aransas on the Skimmer

Sorry, I've been delayed on this last post of our Fulton/Rockport trip. On Thursday, we joined Captain Tommy Moore on the Skimmer for a water-side view of the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. It was a great trip (as usual). We didn't see a lot of Whoopers, and those we did see were at a distance, but they all decided to fly, so I got a few good flight pics. It's early in the season, and last year was particularly bad for the whoopers (mostly due to drought and shortage of blue crabs). I think they lost 23 birds last year.

On the way to the refuge and on the way back, we often see a lot of other birds -- I was able to add three new birds to the life list -- I even have pictures! (Some are not so good). One bird we saw a lot of and that is new to our list is the Dunlin -- they seemed to be everywhere. I got this great pic of one flying.

We also saw Royal Terns (as opposed to Caspians). The main difference is that the bill is more orange than red. This is another new addition to the life list. I love their "hair do's" -- reminds me of Groucho Marx.

And the last "new" bird is the horned lark. These were at a bit of a distance from the boat and they were running across an open stretch of land, so the pic is not so good -- but it works for documentation. ;-)

Captain Tommy is a great birder, with a great sense of humor. He makes a point to identify all sorts of birds along the way -- not just the whoopers. For example, he reminded us that the American Oyster Catcher is misnamed. It's not like it's all that hard to "catch" oysters.

Kingfishers are common around water -- though I'm more used to seeing them inland. They have such a prominent crest shape that they are easily identified on a post or wire, but not necessarily when flying. Fortunately, I saw this one on a post first.

Something new that I learned from our esteemed guide. There are two kinds of cormorants in our area: Double Crested and Neotropic. The differences according to Sibley's are mostly a little white at the corner of the eye. I wasn't particularly sure how to tell them apart. Captain Tommy pointed out that the Neotropics are darker and smaller. There are both in this picture.

If you've viewed this blog in the past, you'll know that I'm especially fond of birds of prey. Most of the "hawks" that I saw were at a pretty good distance. At first I thought this bird was a hawk of some sort (seen from a distance without optics), but it turns out it's a Black Crowned Night Heron. I've seen one before, but this is my first chance at a photo.

Usually, we see a lot of Ospreys in the area. We saw a few, but most were far away, flying or the boat was moving. This was my best osprey shot of the day.

But my best sighting of the day -- even better than the flying whoopers (IMO) was this Peregrine Falcon. This one was on a nesting platform, so I'm hoping she has a nest there -- but maybe it's just a lunch stop.








Okay, I saved the best till last. We saw about three sets of whoopers this time around. One set was a family. The bird with the brown splotches is the juvenile.

And finally, we saw a pair of whoopers, who also flew. Here they are, below.

ANWR Boat Tour

Here are a couple of Pix from Aransas. More to come!


Daddy Whooper, and


Whooper Chick.
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So to keep some of these pictures in order, I've decided to edit this post instead of adding a new one. One thing that may not be obvious from these pictures is that Whooping cranes are really big birds. They stand five feet tall -- that's almost as tall as me!

On this last trip, we saw about 26 whooping cranes on the single trip. Captain Tommy said it was a record for him! We saw these magnificent birds really up close -- as the pictures above show. We also got to see a great little drama.

One of the adults captured a snake! I can't be sure, but I think this may be the female -- you'll notice that she's really shaking things up.

It's not too long before Junior comes over to investigate. You'll notice that the snake isn't real excited about this idea -- it's wrapped itself around a bit of brush and is hanging on for dear life!


But in the end, Mom relents and Junior has lunch!

Anniversary Weekend Birding Trip -- Day 2

By the time we settled for the night, everything was totally foggy. So, while the early morning was pretty gray, we were glad to see the fog was fairly light.

We started our Birding Boat Tour with Captain Tommy Moore on the Skimmer. And of course, one of the first birds we saw was a Great Blue Heron. If you see these birds on a pier or grass, you can see that they can be very colorful -- but in their natural environment along the shore, they blend right in.

Of course the goal of these birding tours, in the winter at least, are to see Whooping Cranes. These rare birds were down to something like 15 birds, before efforts were made to protect them. On this trip, we saw lots of Whoopers -- and some of them really up close!

This set of birds is a special family. The most obvious reason is that there are two chicks! (The juveniles are the two on the outer sides -- with a little brown still around their heads.) What makes this special is that Whooping Cranes rarely have more than one offspring, as the stronger chick will usually kill it's sibling, ensuring that it gets enough food to grow to adulthood. The second special thing about this family is that the male is the oldest known living Whooping Crane in the world. Pretty cool!

A bit further on, we encountered a pair of whoopers that were really close to the boat and did not seem to be worried by our presence. The male of this pair is a descendant of the pair discussed above. However, I believe this is the female.







We were close enough to these magnificent birds to get a decent portrait shot. Because these birds are looking in the water for food (especially blue crabs, their favorite!), every picture shows the water dripping from her bill!

Here you can see her making her way across this small pond. Whooping cranes stand 5 feet tall (almost as tall as me!). Their bodies are 52 inches long, with a wingspan of 87" (according to Sibley). They have black tips on their wings. Captain Tommy told us that the black feathers on their wingtips are stronger than the white feathers.

After a great day of viewing whoopers, this Long- Billed Curlew, walked right by us in the parking lot -- as if saying, "Take a picture of me too!"

Day 2 - The Skimmer

This is the second time we've taken the Skimmer bird-watching boat tour of Aransas. It's also the second time we've gotten great sights of Whooping Cranes. But the cool thing about this tour is that Captain Tommy Moore is a real birder -- and he points out a lot of other birds along the way. I only have a few pictures, but a lot of birds. Those displayed in the photos are highlighted in Bold Red print.

While I don't have pictures of all the birds we saw, and I tried to check only those I saw, my list included: Eared Grebe,

White and Brown Pelicans, Great Blue Heron and Great Egret, White and White-faced Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black and Turkey Vultures, Gadwall and Mottled Duck, Northern Pintail, Common Goldeneye,

an Osprey,












Crested Caracara, Sanhill Crane, Whooping Crane, Black Bellied Plover, American Oyster- catcher, Long-billed Cerlew, Ruddy Turnstone, Laughing Gulls (of course), and Forster's Tern.

Aransas-ANWR Birds

Whoopers!










Year end trip was a success! We watched Whooping Cranes! Lots more too.

Another of this close pair.