It had been a busy week and before I knew it I was behind on
my blog. Valentine’s Day had been celebrated with a RV park pizza party. We
also had some orders to make and of course the Winter Olympics were playing
almost constantly. To top it all off we decided to head to Lamar hoping to see
a few whooper cranes.
When we arrived at
Lamar there were quite a few birders set up. Huge camera lenses were the attire
of the day and I realized I had forgotten my telescope. They were all, of
course, there for the whoopers and what a sight it was! Out in the field at
Lamar there were ten whoopers which represented three per cent of all the
whoopers in the world.
You could tell they were unpaired juveniles as they were so
close together. A breeding pair would have claimed the territory and would
never tolerate any others in their domain. On the other of the brush were two
adults and their yearling. It seems too easy to spot whoopers here and it’s a little
bit frightening as the area is heavily hunted, (I have hunted myself but
mention this because a hunter here shot a whooper chick last year).
We drove around to the Big Tree water access point and
spotted two more whoopers far up in St Charles Bay. So with our daily count at
twelve we headed to Goose Island for other birds. The park however was full of
fisherman and the birds had scattered away from the pier so we switched from
bird watching to spotting sheephead.
The large fish were still there and still feeding on the
post’s barnacles. The fishermen were all enjoying the fine weather while
expressing their inability to catch the visible fish. There is perhaps nothing
more frustrating than being able to spot ones quarry but having them refuse you
offering.
The grocery store was our third stop of the day and other
than the ever present grackles, a quick blip before we headed back to our fifth
wheel. A red letter day, twelve whopping cranes and a week of Valentine’s Day
celebrations! Clear skies.
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