Day 3, ENDANGERED Whooping Cranes awake and on the move, Rockport, Texas

Argh! My banner photo across the top of my opening page keeps disappearing, leaving a blank.

I was out all day yesterday, 13 April 2019, finally getting home at 5:00 pm. A small group of friends and I went east of the city for the day, looking for any migrating birds, travelling north as far as Irricana. There were so many Swans, but not a huge number of other species. However, it was a most enjoyable day - always good to catch up with friends.

Then, this morning, I did a three-hour walk at the east end of Fish Creek Park. Again, great to spend time with friends. Almost at the destination, I decided I would turn back a bit early, so that I could make a few stops along the way. My body complains loudly if I do non-stop, fairly fast walking. As it turned out, I was lucky to have a beautiful Great Blue Heron fly in and land a short distance from me, giving me the chance to take some photos. Before the walk, I had already taken a couple of shots.. I had just climbed into my car at home, when around the corner by my kitchen window, along came a Jackrabbit, wearing a coat of mixed white and brown. Had to get out of my car with my camera, of course : ) Not sure I will post any photos from these two days just yet, as I think I would rather have my Whooping Crane photos uninterrupted.

Early this morning, I added 12 more photos, this time from Day 3 of our 13-day birding trip to South Texas, 19-31 March 2019. This was our second full day there, a day on a tiny boat, watching Whooping Cranes and other species. Having posted so many images from basically our first full day, I rather think I will have to be somewhat more 'disciplined" in my choices, or I will never finish : ) Mind you, I had a quick look through Day 3 photos last night, and discovered that a good many of them, especially of the Whooping Cranes, are very blurry - one disadvantage of taking photos from a little boat that is bobbing up and down. Thankfully, enough of them seem to be sufficiently sharp.

The previous morning, Day 2 of our holiday, 20 March 2019, after our drive to The Big Tree and then along the Lamar Beach Road area, we went to the Connie Hagar Cottage Sanctuary. This is a small, 6.25 acre nature sanctuary that exists in Rockport itself. Such a peaceful place to wander, watching for plants and butterflies as well as birds. There is a small pond, where we watched a young White Ibis, a Great Egret and a Snowy Egret all feeding together. Lovely to see their reflections in the water, too. A couple of nights ago, I was Googling and came across an article from 19 March 2019, telling about a group of students who chose to spend their Spring Break week helping to tidy the Sanctuary. Good for them!

After spending some time at this Sanctuary, we went to the Aransas First Cove Harbor Wetlands Sanctuary, followed by eventually finding the Newbury Park Hummingbird Garden. This was definitely not what we were expecting - just a small area of grass and trees with picnic tables. However, we did see a beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly and a small, purple Winecup flower. Afterwards, a repeat drive along Cape Velero Drive and area turned up some nice birds, too.

Day 3 was a very different kind of day, spent on board the Lady Lori, a small boat with just my friends and I (and the captain/guide) on board. This private tour was arranged in Calgary beforehand. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone!

Aransas Bay Birding Charters:

texasbirdingphotos.net/cgi-bin/p/awtp-home.cgi?d=aransas-...

It was a very early start to the day, before sunrise, as we had a lot of water to cross in order to reach the area where the Whooping Cranes were. When we first arrived at the location, the Cranes were either asleep or just beginning their morning preening session, before becoming active. Too dark to get any decent shots of them in the dark, though I did post one this morning. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous! I couldn't make up my mind which one or two photos to post, so I ended up adding a number of them.

After a while, the Whooping Cranes starting slowly walking and eventually took flight. A bit later in the day, we came across three of them, in the sunshine, busily feeding. This little family consisted of Mom, Dad and junior (their colt). Junior was hungry and eventually, Dad found a crab, which the colt was determined to snatch and eat. Dad was wearing a numbered leg band on one leg; on the other leg was a tracking device. A delightful family group, that was so fascinating to watch from the boat.

As well as seeing these amazing, endangered Cranes, Lori found all sorts of other bird species for us, including a pair of Oystercatchers (female was on a nest), Whimbrel, Long-billed Curlew, Belted Kingfisher, Pelicans, Great Blue Herons, Royal Terns, Caspian Terns, Ruddy Turnstone, Skimmers, and Cormorants, to name just some of them. One area, which was a rookery, had been badly destroyed by Hurricane Harvey, Wooden nesting platforms have been built to replace most of the original nests, and it was great to see Herons nesting on them.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we saw a family of three Dolphins, too.

Taken in: United States / Texas / Rockport (show map)

Taken on: March 21, 2019

Sets appears in: • 13-day trip to South Texas, 19-31 March 2019 • Birds of South Texas, 19-31 March 2019 more » • Whooping Crane / Grus americana • Nikon Coolpix P900 • 2019, my most interesting photos « less

Groups appears in: • Sunsets & Sunrises around the world (We Rock Again!) • Bird Lovers more » • Birds , Birds Birds • Nikon Coolpixers • Beauty of Nature • *I Love Birds* • Birding In The Wild • GlobalBirdTrekkers • Birdshare • Burdr • Orange is Warm and Vivacious *NATURE ONLY* • Any kind of wildlife/nature • NIKON P900 « less

Camera: NIKON COOLPIX P900, f/5.6, 1/800 sec, 116mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	NIKON COOLPIX P900
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/800)
Focal Length:	116mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Gain Control:	High gain down
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 12.0 Windows
Show full info

Stats: 6,316 views / 9 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: