Wind and Cold Temps, Means Birding and Jewelry Making Time

The reason we spend our winters here, along the Coastal Bend of Texas, is because we love the water. It means good fishing, kayaking, and exceptional birding. However, the winter occasionally intrudes, and the temps plunge to the low fifties and even into the forties making outside activities prohibitive.

Still the temps and winds did abate and so while kayaking and fishing were still out of the question, we did get out to do some birding. This past week we took the short drive to Lamar to check out the whooping cranes. Arriving at the Big Tree we spotted quite a few birds. The whooping cranes are impossible to miss as they are five feet tall and dominate the shorter sandhill cranes.

There’s a pair in the pasture that looks like they have made their lifelong commitment but there are no chicks, so it must have just happened. A little further away a group of four whoopers, two and three-year-old still gather together, (pairs stake out a square mile of territory and do not allow any other whoopers into their feeding grounds).

I was exited to get to listen for the definite whooper call, but they were silent and the long squawks we heard were from the sandhill’s. With my new hearing aids, I should be able to hear them when we walk around the Big Tree trail. We did see a falcon/ kestrel, but we couldn’t get a good enough image to prove it was an Aplomoda falcon, which is a very rare falcon that is slowly reestablishing its range.

The pond in the cow pasture, where the whoopers are, also has a large flock of bright pink rosette spoonbills, black belied whistling ducks, American white ibis, and cattle egrets. We were also able to spot some night herons, who of course were sleeping during the day.

A few days later another break in the weather allowed us to travel to Port Aransas. There we crossed the free ferry, and then turned on the road to the birding area named Charle’s Pasture. They have rebuilt some of the road and you can almost reach the pasture but the parking was muddy and so we turned around and drove to Paradise Pond.

Paradise Pond has taken quite a hit form Hurricane Harvey and many of the large trees were knocked down. There are good signs for its recovery as new trees, wrapped in burlap, were waiting to be planted. We did manage to see quite a few yellow rumped warblers, several rosy crowned kinglets, pied billed grebes, and lots of red eared turtles.

Our next stop was at the Lora Turnbill Birding Center. You may recall from last years post that the boardwalk was destroyed but it is being rebuilt in a better location with a new tower that will have a separate section for photographers.

The work has just restarted as the funding had dried up due to the government shutdown. (hopefully the funds will not be diverted for Trumps wall). All the work is supposed to be completed by the end of April, so we will have to wait till next fall to see the finished walkway. There was a large gator laying on the mud and it was surrounded by night herons and spoonbills who seemed unconcerned by being so near to the sleeping giant.

After a nice lunch at our favorite restaurant, we drove out to look at the south jetty. While there were quite a few fishermen, and fisherwomen, there wasn’t a lot being caught. One woman had caught a small sheepshead, and her husband told us that they had only caught four keeper fish n the last two months, (they were using dead shrimp, the sheepshead here prefer live ones)

A fisherman did catch an oversize red, 45 inches long, and he let a person hold it up for a picture! That person is probably back home telling everyone about the big fish he caught. You can see that Renita cut him out of the picture.

The last thing we noticed is that the old Fina docks are being dismantled and new docks and a pipeline are going to be built to accommodate the filling of super tankers. So much for one of the best fishing spots. Large warning signs have been posted and cranes were working on the old structure as we watched.

The weather is supposed to warm up and the winds might calm down enough for us to go fishing today. Pam and Roy