We are finally getting settled in Texas and we took a drive to Lamar looking to see the whooping cranes. On the way we passed the Linda S, Carver Bird Sanctuary, which is part of the Aransas Pathways.
Our friends Barb and Dan go there often and it’s a nice place for a quick visit, looking for migrating birds, As usual, we had difficulties with the wading birds, Each year we spend time refreshing our memories on the types of shorebirds, (we often make mistakes so please feel free to correct us)
Our first stop was at the covered observation deck. There Northern cardinals landed in the trees and popped in and out of the dense foulage,
We did spot a tufted titmouse and perhaps an immature painted bunting, (lousy picture).
Before we left a forester tern flew over the pond and got a shot of it in the air.
Down the path we did notice the huge fire ant mounds which are sonneting every Texas visitor needs to learn how to stay away from. Successfully avoiding them we took a few pictures of what I first thought were lesser juvenile yellow legs.
Mottled ducks swam by along with some green wing teal, and others, (time for the bird book)
A great blue heron and a snowy egret were also present, but I couldn’t get a decent picture of the snowy.
Returning to the car we did spot an eastern kingbird. Our next stop was across Copano Bay to the town of Lamar. We looked but didn’t see any scissor tails, but a deer did burst out of the thick woods and eagle eye Renita missed it.
Driving along the Beach we passed the point where alligators reside, but we didn’t see any. The bird/deer feeders weren’t working yet as apparently no one is filling them. Turning up Eighth Street we saw cars stopping and there were three whooping cranes.
It was a family group with a new colt, which is a name for the brown spotted young bird, (they are called colts because of the their rambunctious behavior.
We noticed several sandhill cranes and it was obvious the young whooper was staring at them, whoopers do not like to share their feeding areas with other large birds and the male will often chase them away, Even getting into fight when other whooping cranes that land in their territory, (each whooper family claims an area of about one to two miles).
As we watched Renita spotted a flock of about ten rosette spoonbills, a great white Heron
, and I got a shot of a reddish egret in the background. The next bird we spotted was an American Kestral, perching on a wire.
The water level is high from coastal flooding and in a normally dry spot sanderlings and a willet, shared the bonanza of the rarely flooded area.
It was a short trip and so we headed back to our fifth wheel. It’s quite a bit smaller than our Cavco Park Model, but like any small space, quite livable, with air conditioning, the temps and humidity are too high for us to enjoy afternoons outside, (it usually cools off for happy hour. Clear skies
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