Port Aransas, Bollards, A Bittern, and Black Drum

We hadn’t been to Port Aransas for a while and we have been meaning to go see the Bollard coverings. Each year volunteers cover the bollards, (posts that prevent cars from entering areas, with knitting that decorates them. The coverings are removed before spring break.

Dan and Barb had also planned on going so we got together and planned a mutual adventure. Arriving at the beach, after purchasing a beach permit, we started to walk, view, and photograph them, ( we did this several years ago and tried to just take pics of the newest ones).

We were surprised to see that there are now over four hundred covered bollards, and the walk turned into a pleasant form of exercise.

Here is another of our favorites!

After finishing our walk our next plan was to go birding at Charles Pasture and then the Leorna Turnbill Birding Center. We had just finished eating our picnic lunch at Charley’ Pasture when Renita spotted an American Bittern. They are extremely hard to spot as their camoflague is excellent. Renita had her camera and I had left mine in the car!

Dan also had his camera which has the same zoom lens we do and so they both followed the American Bittern as it walked and stopped looking for its prey! The large bird didn’t seem to care about us but it stayed in the brownish brush, making it difficult to focus.

Still, Dan and Renita both got some good shots, (the first two are Dans).

It turned out to be a new life bird for Barb and Dan, they already had a least bittern, one bird we have not yet seen. It was a fun day at Port Aransas! Thanks for sharing the day we us!

Another day Dave and I went fishing to one of our favorite places. I had an exceptional day catching three Black drum. Two measured just under thirty inches and a third was twenty six inches. I ended up taking two home, (I accidently dropped the other twenty nine inch fish overboard while trying to put it into the live well). While I have caught my limit of black drum, these were the three largest I have caught in a single day! Clear skies

Blue Lagoons Eight Ball Tournament February 2025

I noticed that there were quite a few billiards players in our park Billard/Game room. In the past there were usually a few but now there were quite a few regulars. As Activities Coordinator I thought perhaps an Eight Ball Tournament would be fun and so I put out a signup sheet to see if anyone was interested. With a little prodding there were eight people signed up, the cost was five dollars, and so we picked a date, February 21st, at nine am. I had watched the others play and since they were quite a bit better than I am I still added my name to the list. After all the tournament was about meeting other people, winning any money was furthest from my mind.

As the date neared, I decide to buy a pool cue and luckily found a Chinese made one that was on sale before the imposition of any tariff. It cost me about seventy-five dollars, which was a lot, but it was first pool cue I had ever bought.

It arrived five days before the tournament and I practiced for four days meeting the others and discussing the rules and brackets to be used, (most of the people beat me but I did remember how to play from my college days, fifty years ago). The morning of the tournament arrived and only seven of the players showed up, (the eighth showed up after we were in the second round past the place where his name had been changed to a bye). We agreed on the rules and drew cards for the order of play. Everyone started out equal in the winning bracket and if you lost you then moved to the consolation bracket.

To determine your first opponent I shuffled cards, number one through eight, and we each drew a card whose number corresponded to one of the eight starting bracket slots. I got lucky on the draw, (I was not the first, we drew in order of signing up), and ended up with the bye). The games started and I could see that there were some good players. My goal was to win one match and not be the first one out. It was a double elimination, with best of three games for each match. My first match opponent was a happy hour friend, and I could see he was good with his stick. I had already decided that my best strategy was to slow down, hit softly, and try to leave my opponent with a bad shot. Winning the first game, The second game started and I was behind. However, Kenny, my opponent, tried a difficult bank shot, on the eight ball, and scratched, so I won my first match! Because I had a first round bye I didn’t play another match until the final. Here I was pitted against another friend Bob. The day before we had played seven racks and he had beat me five of the seven games. Second place would be good and so I hit soft and played position ball. Bob won the first game, and I didn’t have a lot of hope but my strategy worked and I won the second game! Bob and I started the last game, (rack), and he pulled ahead. Then he broke up a cluster of balls and the eight ball went in by mistake. I couldn’t believe it, just like that I had won the tournament!

In other matches Don and Frank played for the winner of the consolation bracket. It was another close match and this time Don took the match and third place! The important thing was that we had made new friends, and that’s what the tournament was all about. Clear skies

Valentine’s Day Dinner, Blue Lagoons Rv Park

Every user we have a special dinner planned for Valentines Day. In the past we have had excellent prime rib and Cornish hens barbecued to perfection by our activity’s coordinators Zita and Alan. This year they were unable to come down for the winter, and so we had to figure out what to do. I volunteered to be the Activities Director/coordinator and with no one else wanting the unpaid position I won the vote, (it was unanimous). Having led an organization of over three hundred teachers I knew the only hope was to have lots of volunteers.

The key to forming a committee is to have someone bring it up at a meeting and sure enough, Marsha asked about Valentines Day. Now the unwritten rule is to ask the person who brought up a subject up to head a committee, (it worked well for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years Eve. Many friends and others provided Marsha with event suggestions. No one in the park felt comfortable about grilling the food and so it was decided to have the food catered. After making several inquiries, Marsha determined that Shack’s Smokehouse and Seafood was the best and only establishment that responded to her request. They offered to deliver four kinds of meat, potato salad, coleslaw, beans, and a spicey barbecue sauce, (remember this is south Texas, so spicy means a sauce that’s Muy caliente)! To round out the meal our local HEB Grocery store made cheesecake for fifty, The total cost for each person attending was twenty five dollars. Very reasonable for a catered hot meal. Forty-six people signed up (the park is not as full as it usually is for this time of year as the last managers were disastrous and were fired along with all their staff).

Before dinner, Dan and Barb greeted each guest and took their photos, which were sold to them at cost. Then everyone picked their places and waited for dinner to be served. The Shack brought the meal in a large, heated cooler and a slice of cheesecake were placed at each setting. After wishing everyone a Happy Valentines, Jane, who made the flower arrangements, led us in prayer and table after table was invited up to be served, (I had nothing to do with the order).

The servers filled each plate with the person’s request, and no one left hungry! It was a perfect Valentines meal served by friends, (we refer to all the people as our winter family)! The night and the food was a success! Thanks to Marsha, and all the volunteers who made it all possible, (where else could you get a meal for less)? Clear skies

Black drum

It’s been too long since I have written in the blog, (which is really my personal journal). It’s now time to catch up! Our jewelry and rock shows are about to start and my excuses for not writing are many. So, the first catch up blog is basically a fishing report. I have been fishing with my friend Dave who as usual out fished me in the catching department. We have concentrated on black drum, mostly with lots of small fish and an occasional keeper. Did I forget to mention oversize fish? Both the red and black drums have slot limits. For the black drum the fish must be at least fourteen inches and with a maximum size of thirty inches. All others must be released, (unless you catch a black drum over fifty-four inches which is not going to happen). The huge black drum are the spawners. They are tremendous fighters and difficult to get in the boat. Their bite starts as a few taps and then they run. Twice this year Dave and I have both been spooled. That means that the fish decides to head out for Gulf of Mexico and takes all the line off your reel. Yup all the line! Tightening the drag, already set, causes the knot or line to brake, (which is a good way to release the fish as the hook quickly rust out) Another tactic of the fish is too head for the nearest barnacle covered object. When the fish gets around it the line is quickly cut by the razor-sharp edges. Sometimes I use reels with fifty-pound braid, with the same result! The largest we boated this year was the one first pictured, a black drum that measured forty-six inches, (estimated at forty-nine pounds, with the world record being over one hundred and thirteen pounds).

My largest this year was thirty-seven inches and the one pictured is thirty-two inches and all were safely released.The one in the cooler is twenty seven inches and tasted great!

Did I say that they are one of my favorite fish to eat? The pictures speak for themselves, Clear skies, and tight lines!

Wading Whooping Cranes at Lamar

Pam and Roy joined us for a birding trip to Lamar. Its only seven miles from our Blue Lagoons Rv Park, and so after crossing the Copano Bay Bridge we turned right and drove to St Charles Bay. The water was extremely low as a strong cold front, with high winds blew the water out. The tides are very small here, so the Coastal Winds and offshore storms are the determiner of the water levels. Reaching Eight Street we spotted three Whooping Cranes wading and feeding on objects in the water.

Renita got a picture of the family group and on the right, the young Whooper had a small crab in its beak. Bluer crabs are a great food along with fish and other seafood.

As we watched they dipped their beaks but did not catch any large blue crabs, (it is amazing watching them using their beaks to easily open a large crab). It has been verified that a Whooping Crane killed a feral hog by driving its beak into its skull!

The birds started wading further out and the male turned as if to say hurry up! We decided to leave the magnificent birds alone, (they are five feet tall) and drove further along the road. Turning the corner near Big Tree an American Kestrel perched on a Palm Tree Branch.

Its feathers were ruffed up and it had turned its back to the wind. Parking at Big Tree, located on twelfth street, we walked around the tree watching for other birds, but we didn’t spot any.

I got a picture of Renita and Pam looking at the tree and you can see they are bundled up!

As we drove back along the beachfront two American White Pelicans flew over head and we both got good pics.

A little further and a flock of Sandhill Cranes fed and a flock of seven Whooping Cranes flew across the sky.

We love taking photos of flying birds and of course to get pictures of the endangered Whooping Cranes is always a special treat!

Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas 12/27/2024

We had not yet gone to the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, so we invited Dan and Barb. Packing our our picnic lunch we headed there, looking for a day of birding, alligators, and perhaps a snake or armadillo. It’s a short drive, about 45 minutes, to the refuge which was established to protect the few remaining Whooping Cranes. Their numbers had plummeted to only twenty nine and the Whooping Cranes seemed to be headed for extinction, However, enacting protections, the numbers have slowly rose in the past century and today there are over eight hundred of the tall beautiful birds.

Now there are often whoopers on the Heron Flats Trail or visible from the Observation Tower and so those were the first two places we birded. The Heron Flats Trail is about one and a half miles in length. Walking the trail, you must be aware of both the alligators that cross the hike and be on the lookout for poisonous snakes, (besides being covered for the mosquitoes)!

The small observation platform gave us our first look at the flats, and Barb and Dan spotted either a Virginia Rail or a King Rail. The two birds are very similar in looks, but they were both new birds for their life list and so they added the King Rail. It would also have been a new bird for us but we were both taking pictures of other birds and never saw the rail before it disappeared into the brush.

Hiking down the trail we passed a flock of rosette spoonbills, numerous Great Blue Herons, (some white), and watched a pair of acrobatic Royal terns swooping down on surfacing minnows.

At one point a flock of Greater Kiskadees landed in a bush me and I got a great image!

We were all surprised that there was only one alligator on the brackish ponds and the only other birds we saw were pied billed grebes, Several Eastern Phoebes posed for pictures along with the ever present Northern Mockingbirds. Our next drive was to the Observation Towers, The tallest tower, has a great view of the waterways and brush covered mud flats. Usually three whooper’s, a family unit, are visible but all we saw were great white herons,

Black vultures, and Eastern Flycatchers. A metal post stood in the saltwater marsh and a Belted Kingfisher scanned the water before diving from its raised platform and making a fast meal of the rising baitfish. Three beautiful and brightly colored orange mushrooms had grown in a small area surrounded by the parking lot. I took a picture of them but didn’t touch them aware that many of the bright fungi were poisonous.

From the parking lot we turned onto the Eleven Mile Road. At one point we did spot a Golden Fronted Woodpecker which perched long enough for ne to get a focused picture. A little further several cars were stopped and the people had cameras and tripods set up!

It was the place where a Bald Eagle Pair had in past years, unsuccessfully nested and this year the male bird had returned! It was perched high on a dead branch of a towering Live Oak. Preening, it would stop and look at the eerie but we could not see if a female was sitting on eggs, One can hope for a successful hatch and rearing of young.

It has been over forty years since a pair had a successful rearing of eaglets on the refuge. We didn’t see much else on the drive as everything is parched from the prolonged drought, (we are on stage three water conditions as the local reservoirs are below twenty percent full). Reaching the main road we made our final stop at Jones Lake. Two alligators were sunning themselves and several Buffalohead ducks tempted fate by swimming near the large gators. A bobcat had been spotted that morning but didn’t appear.

On the way out, Barb spotted an armadillo! It was the first live one we have seen since we arrived in Texas. The armadillos are supposed to taste like pork but they do carry leprosy. Luckily, we don’t carry the genes that make some people susceptible. Even though we did not spot any whooping cranes, it was a successful day of birding with friends, Babr and Dan have almost as many birds on their life list and Dan is a better photographer that I am so I always try to learn some of his techniques! Clear skies and Happy New Year!