Flamingoes, Fishing the Jetty, and more Birding at Port Aransas

Our friends Dan and Barb arrived and wanted to see the flamingoes. While they had seen them in zoos, they had never seen them in the wild and so they could add them to their birding life list. They started it after they retired and have taken a picture of each bird and added it to the list. They have spotted over two hundred and seventy birds and that’s a lot of pictures!

We drove to Charles Pasture, North, and the flamingoes were still there, (and they still are today). What was great was that they were the closest we have ever seen them and have some pretty good images! After the flamingoes we next went to the Leorna Turnbill birding Center looking for the clapper rail but no luck.

Still, we got some great pics and especially a Wilson’s snipe, a willet eating a blue crab and a white ibis also eating a crab meal. A white ibis also joined the crab feast.

I really got a kick out how the willet stunned the crab and then swallowed it tail first so the claw would be closed.

Later we made another trip Port Aransas but this time we added fishing to the day’s agenda. We had hoped that the sheepshead had moved in, but nothing was happening. The fishing was mediocre as the fish were tiny. Dave caught five small grunts and I caught four small catfish.

While we fished, Betty, Renita, and Jane watched the huge tankers entering the shipping channel. Some were accompanied by bottlenose dolphins, which were of course bow riding. After fishing we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant and after lunch, we decided to go birding. Without our good cameras the pictures were not the best. Hoping for a clapper rail we were again thwarted, spotting both the sora and Virgina but not the rail we wanted. Still the huge alligator was sunning, and the water was covered with ducks as hunting season has started and the ducks like the refuge.

pictured is a redish egret. It extends its wings while wading after fish in what is described a as drunken walk. Today several fronts are moving towards us and perhaps they will bring the sheepshead into the jetty and back bays. They come into the rocks and bays for spawning. Hope they come in soon as we are running out of fish in the freezer! It was the worst fishing ever and the jetty had very few people on it. Clear skies