Another Day at the Port Aransas Birdng Centers, with an Unexpected Sight!

We took a break from fishing and headed over to Port Aransas. There we wanted to go to the three birding centers where we would hopefully be able to see a rosette spoonbill. The spoon bills are mostly in the rookeries now and we are not sure where of the locations of their nesting sites.

Crossing the ferry we turned right, just past the convenience store, Park Street, and headed to Charlies Pasture. As we drove along the shore we noticed two men filming dolphins. Now this is not unusual but these dolphins were leaping out of the water, chasing each other, and behaving unlike anything we had seen before.

As we got out, the two locals said that the dolphins were engaged in mating behavior and in dolphin world that means, well basically a group orgy. The dolphins couldn’t care less about us and raced by the seawall so close that we could reach out and touch them!

There were three groups/pods and everywhere we looked it was dolphin love! Amazed we watched for a while, tried to take numerous images, and basically talked about how lucky we were, (what a year tortoise and dolphin sex). Finally we decided we had seen enough and so we returned to the truck in search of spoonbills.

As we drove away a spoonbill rose from the road ditch and everyone saw it. It was dressed in its bright pink breeding plumage, with a darker red band along both wings. It was lucky we did spot it as we never saw another one that day.

We skipped stopping at Charley’s Pasture as the mosquitos were about as bad as they can get when birding in a salt marsh. Arriving at the Leona Turnball Center we walked along the cement sidewalk, enjoying the profusion of flowers and blooms, almost all identified by small signs. I knew Bob was a botanist and so the blooms were a special treat.

On the boardwalk, we were also able to check off alligator, one large, black necked stilts, and the ever present tricolored heron. Many species were gone however, besides the spoonbills, but still it was an enjoyable morning.

After eating lunch, where the fish were not local caught, boo, we drove to Paradise Pond. There we were able to see several birds, including a Louisiana water thrush, a night heron, and my favorite, a Northern Parula. The Parula’s flitted in the underbrush and actually lit several feet away giving me a great close up view.

As it was time to head back we returned to the ferry. No long wait now as spring break is over and we were able to drive right on. We all talked of the highlights of the day and everyone agreed that the three pods of dolphins topped the list! Clear skies