Fred and Becky's visit, and teaching a wire wrapping class, (passing skills on)

The last week has been cold, there were a couple of days where it was warm and foggy, but the first of two cold fronts passed though, and we have been hiding inside ever since. Of course, we had company, as our Star Valley friends came down to camp and fish. We had also planned to teach a class on a wire wrapping, so the cold fronts did not interrupt that. They camped at Goose Island State Park at a great site for their camper van. We met and talked over our options, deciding to try to spot whopping cranes the next morning. The next morning, we awoke to a heavy fog. It was a really poor day to take decent photos, but as we could not wait for better weather, we drove over to their campsite and picked them up.

Getting our cameras ready, we first drove down fourth street and after passing the cattails, we spotted two whooping cranes. They were in a field along Lamar Beach Road. Pulling over along the beach side. Fred, Becky, and Renita bailed out as I rolled down my window and shot through the opening. We knew right away that the fog was going to cause problems, and it did. Still, we hoped our computers image processing programs would allow us to mitigate its effects. Renita and I use a standard processing program on our windows program and our friend Fred uses a free program on his iPad. After we exchanged our best photos, I noticed how Fred had been able to lessen the effects of the fog. Our program had also worked but nowhere as good as his. He retouched one of our photos and sent it back to me. The difference is plain to see. We need to get his program and learn how to use it.

The first image is our original image, the second we retouched using Windows,

and the third is the one Fred edited with his iPad.

We did see quite a few birds. Rosette spoonbills have arrived as they use a rookery nearby. A cara-cara landed on a telephone pole,

and a few ducks were swimming in a puddle in the field. After taking their pictures two young bulls decided to engage in a head-butting match and we were actually able to get the cloud of dust as the charged each other.

Meanwhile a flock of sandhill cranes landed and the spoonbills flew away. Now the four whooping cranes were nearby and one of them flew over to the sandhills and started to chase them.

Imagine our surprise when we saw that it was not the dominant male but instead one of the juveniles. It sure did not take the new whooping crane long to emulate his father actions. After making one charge the sandhills scattered and he then began feeding.

After returning home we noticed an unusual bird in one of the photos. Posting the picture on the Bird ID Group, where it was identified as an Upper Sandpiper, a new life bird for our list.

We spent the rest of the day watching the whooping crane family. After lunch we got live shrimp for bait and then drove back to the park where we fished on the Fishing Pier. The fishing was terrible but at least Fred was able to catch a pinfish with his new pole. I caught a couple of stingrays, so we never caught anything for dinner. The next day our friends decided to check out sights around Rockport. We had a wire wrapping class to teach. It was a free class where the participants tired their hands at what we do for our business.

While we have taught classes in the past, its not our favorite thing to do. Some of our older students have difficulty manipulating the tools and wire.

This time the small class of five had great day. Here are the result of three of the students!

This week we are getting ready for the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Show, in Robstown Texas. Its our second biggest show of the year. Now if covid numbers will stay low and if the crowd will attend…. Clear skies

A busy ten days!

It has been ten days since I last wrote a blog and it’s not because we have had nothing to write. I could have written five different blogs and so this one is going to be crowded. Our rv park has had a plethora of activities including our yearly Arts and Craft Show. We also had a Valentines Day Prime Rib Dinner. we went fishing twice, and out neighbors from Star Valley, Jo and Robert stopped by for a day of birding at Lamar.

Our Happy Hour group meets each day at four pm, (most of the people drink non-alcoholic drinks). It’s a gathering of as many as twenty-seven people and that means there are lots of special things to celebrate! One was the recent birthday of our dear Yooper, (Michigan Upper Pennisula inhabitant) friend Jane, (of Dave and Jane). Eighteen of the group gathered for pizza at our local pizzeria, Panjo’s. In our opinion it is the best pizza in Rockport and it didn’t disappoint any! Happy Birthday Jane!

Dave took Roy and I fishing, and we actually caught keepers. Many of the fish were too small but we got lucky and caught six keeper sheepsheads. Nothing like fresh fish! On another day Dave and I went fishing while Roy joined another group and fished from shore. While we caught quite a few fish, all were small, but its still fun to have a good day of catching.

Valentines Day is celebrated each year by the park celebrating by a smoked prime rib dinner. Our activity directors, Zita and Alan are second to none and Alan is a Pitmaster from Kansas City. The prime rib was the best we have ever had. Upon entry, Barb and Dan took pictures of every couple which are provided to all at no charge. No one left with an empty stomach!

Finally, we were able to spend a day of birding with our Star Valley neighbors, Jo and Robert. They were full-timers, and were in charge, last year, of the Escapees Rally at Rock Springs, Wyoming. They are traveling to the Maritime Provinces for the summer and have rented their lot out for the entire summer! As they had never seen a whooping crane, they called us and drove their rv to Rockport for a few days to check out the area. We agreed to meet at our rv park and Renita, and I guided them to Lamar. Of course, the birds weren’t waiting for us, so we went to Big Tree which is the biggest and oldest Live oak tree in Texas.

A flock of sandhills landed in a field but no whooping cranes were present and so we drove to Goose Island State Park. After driving through the campgrounds, we did spot a flying pink rosette spoonbill. We didn’t get any pictures, but it was the first time they have ever seen one!

Leaving the park Renita drove to Eighth street and as we came to the open filed and there was the whooping crane family of four! The juveniles have lost most of their brown color and only have a little on their heads and necks. They were waiting for a feeder to start to dispense food, and you can see the male watching the feeder, while the juveniles and female feed in the tall grass. Our number one goal for the day was reached!

On the way out a beautiful, northern belted kingfisher posed on a fence post. It was a perfect shot with great light but as soon as I lowered the window the bird took off. That is typical behavior for a kingfisher. Renita wa sable to get a great picture of a greta blue heron in its breeding plumage.

Still, it was a superb day of birding! Next week Renita and I are teaching a wire wrapping class in the park, one of two. Its time to pass on our techniques to others, and we are teaching the class at cost. We are also getting ready for our big show at Robstown, Texas. It is the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Societies annual show, except for last year when covid caused its cancellation, (for the first time in fifty-two years). Clear skies!

A Trip to Port Aransas with Pam and Roy

As we watched the birds at the birding center, a local birding volunteer asked me what kind of an egret was sitting on a post. I answered that I thought it was a snowy egret. He said that I was wrong, that it was a white morphed reddish egret. He directed my attention to the black legs and feet and described how most herons and egrets stand still and wait for food to swim nearby. Reddish egret, on the other hand, hunt in a drunken walk and often run to their prey. I thanked him for the information and now I feel good about telling the difference between the eight different white wading birds. They include the snowy egret

, (notice the yellow feet), the great egret, (yellow legs), the white morphed reddish, (with a two-color beak and black legs/feet), and the juvenile little blue heron.

Pam and Roy have arrived from the frozen wastelands of Iowa and are here for the next two months. Renita and I are so happy to see them after a three-year hiatus while Roy battled a long-term illness. He is on the mend now and so there will be more posts on fishing.

On the way to Port Aransas Renita stopped the car so that I could try to take pictures of the belted kingfishers that perch on the power lines while waiting for fish. My pictures are ok but I need to have better light to get great ones.We had a good day birding, with the usual sights at the LeonaBelle Birding center.

Besides the giant alligator, a juvenile dark morphed reddish tried to confuse me, and we spotted a brown form that we thought was a nutria but turned out to be an empty beer bottle

. All of us enjoyed our lunch at our favorite restaurant, Virginias, and we walked on the newly repaired south Jetty. Several big ships and a Coast Guard Cutter headed inbound to Corpus Christi.

One of them was accompanied by several dolphins but they were not going airborne as the prow of the unladed ship prevented the good wake for their leaps.

Omicron has passed through our park and all of our friends have now recovered, and out of isolation. One of the ways we celebrated was to hold our annual Blue Lagoons Craft show. It featured eight different crafts/artists. Unfortunately, the show was poorly attended due to the cold keeping most people indoors. Still, it gave us a good opportunity to set up our displays in preparation for next months Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral show in Robstown, Texas. That is one of our three big shows and this year we have expanded from four to six tables. That is because we now have increased our jewelry from fourteen to twenty display cases, (covid did not stop our continued love of lapidary and jewelry making and our displays were getting too crowded). It was a good day and a good start to the month, and we look forward to the many outings. Clear skies

ps we did spot the two whooping cranes but they were far away at Charles Pasture.

Another Great Day with the Whooping Cranes of Lamar

Bob and Lucy, friends of ours, reported that they had seen the whooping crane family, so we decided to make another trip to Lamar. We first drove down Eighth street but did not see any of the majestic birds. Turning south we spotted two whoopers near a feeder. Driving past a pond we first stopped to take a couple quick pictures of a roosting night crowned heron and then turned west onto fourth street. The cat tails had blocked our view of the feeder, but the recent high winds had blown their tall tops down. Getting out of the car and standing up we could easily watch the pair feed. Soon the male spread his wings and seemed to be preparing for flight and after several false attempts both the whoopers sprang into the sir and headed north toward the back bays alongside St Charles Bay.

There was no sign of the family and so we next drove to Big Tree. There were four other birders there including one who had the same Sigma 150/600mm telephoto lens that we use. A beautiful Kestrel landed in a nearby treetop and seemed to pose as he presented us with his best side!

Our next bird was an Eastern wood peewee. It landed on a nearby treetop then hoovered before diving and catching its bug. Returning to the tree top I was able to get a good shot in which you can see the small brightly colored wasp in its beak!

A large flock of sandhill cranes flew by and we could hear their unmistakable calls. It was next followed by the sound of whooping cranes, which is quite a bit different than their Sandhill cousins. Returning to the car we drove along the bay stopping to take a picture of the sandhills. There was an osprey in a treetop, but it was a bit far away and I could not get a decent image. A little further down the road and we both spotted a family of whooping cranes.

As we watched them, we realized it was the family of four birds that we had last seen in December, success at last!

By turning west on Eight street we were able to get quite a bit closer and we started to take hundreds pictures. The problem is that there was a wire fence between us and them and many of my shots focused on the wire. Renita however switched to manual focus and got great shots of the family. We had been told, by a friend, that the juveniles had lost their brown feathers, but Renita pictures showed that both of them still had their mottled brown coloration. There was less brown than last December, but I was still obvious. As they fed, they meandered west.

The male keep a lookout and seemed to be encouraging them to head to a feeder. Finally, he and one of the colts/juveniles leapt into the air and flew over a fence, landing in a field lined with live oaks. The other two joined them and they all walked to a large feeder where they stopped and stared at a nearby house.

Now we do not know it the feeder is on a timer or if someone in the house could remotely work the feeder, but the whoopers stare had worked. Even I could hear the grinding noise as the feeder dropped a load of pellets and the four birds began feeding.

Just as quickly a small flock of sandhills decided to join them. Now the whooping cranes are larger and the dominant birds in their territory and the male spread his wings and chased them away. Still the sand hills remained on the fringe waiting for their opportunity.

The juveniles got their fill and sat down a little way away from the feeder. As it was close to my nap time, we decided to return to our fifth wheel. It had been a great day, spotting and photographing six whooping cranes.

Whooping cranes are an endangered species numbering over five hundred and their flocks have not increased for a while. It has been a great year for blue crabs and that is one of the factors about whether or not crane pairs successfully reproduce. Let us hope this will be a good year. Clear skies

Back to Port Aransas, after a bit of healing

A week and a half ago, Renita came down with a sore throat and a cough. She also had a runny nose and Renita never gets sick. After a few days she started to feel better and then I got a sore throat and a cough. We figured it might be omicron but what do you do? We have both been triple vaccinated and so we started to take our temperatures and oxygen levels and they all stayed good. We never felt tired and slowly we both healed. Staying in isolation we registered for a covid test last Friday and we both tested negative! What a relief!

Deciding we needed to celebrate we loaded up our camera equipment and drove over to Port Aransas for a day of birding. We had heard that the whooper pair had returned and as soon as we neared the Leorna Turnbull Birding center we spotted them. They were in a field over by Charley’s Pasture. It was a nice day, but heat waves shimmered, still Renita got a good shot!. Hoping they would stay put we walked the boardwalk at the birding center, looking for a bird we have not yet seen, a clapper rail. The water filled with birds including the usual northern shovelers, blue and green teal, and black necked stilts.

There were also some American White Pelican’s and a White-faced Ibis One of the ibis and a white pelican were both preening themselves and having a bath. We watched them for a while, before returning to the car and driving over to see the whoopers.

The whooping crane pair had moved into a thicket and so we had to wait awhile before they reached a clearing. We were only able to see them for a few minutes but at one point they both raised their heads. It was the same pair, we think, as was there last year but last year they had a colt with them. The Juvenile was nowhere to be seen, as it had left its parents to join up with others.

We took a nice walk, saw a few other birds, including an eastern meadowlark, and a few gulls. Eating lunch, we decided to then drive back to Rockport and stop at a birding place near Paradise Cove. We had heard that there was a beautiful reddish egret, and as soon as we stepped on the boardwalk saw a tricolored heron, and the reddish egret.

The egret hardly looked up and seemed to be tired of all the intrusions. It did not fly and merely gave us a nasty look. it had been sleeping but it decided it was hungry and landed in the water, starting to fish.

It slowly waded near the shadow of the boardwalk and then rushed underneath.

Returning into the sunlight we could see it had a tasty bit of sushi in its beak.

It continued on doing this for a while before jumping on a perch and going back to sleep. Next a little blue egret landed and also begin to fish. We never did see it catch anything, but it was far away. It did not matter as we had our first outing of the year! Now if we can continue to get stronger by taking more outings and longer walks, we can get back to normal! Clear skies.

Whooping cranes, fishing, and lots of food!

The last week has been absolutely crazy. First off Renita and I made another kayak fishing trip to Port Bay. We also partook of the comradery in our rv park as there were five community meals, with opportunities to play cards/bingo after many of the meals. Finally, we made a New Year’s Day trip to Lamar looking for more whooping cranes. Fishing has really been hit and miss this year. Still, we had several good days and having run out of fish to eat, decided to make another trip to a new favorite spot. The forecast was for a little wind which is really important as our kayaks don’t do well in large waves. Launching the kayaks, we pushed off and paddled to the same spot where we had caught three nice keepers. Casting out live shrimp we immediately had bites. Our first catches were all hardhead catfish. Releasing them I cast to another spot and felt a hard bump as a fish took my shrimp. It didn’t run and so I set the hook by winding in, (we use circle hooks, and a traditional hook set doesn’t work). It was a nice eating size black drum, and rebaiting I cast out again. This time my pole twitched once and then went still. I started to wind in, and the fish took off. After a great fight I was able to net a twenty-five-inch black drum!

Now it was Renitas turn as she felt a fish bite and fought in a keeper speckled trout. Speckled sea trout are nothing like the trout we catch in Wyoming. They are a white meat fish and taste great. I had a bite and missed it but when I wound in another fish hit. It even jumped into the air! It was another good size speckled trout! As we fished the waves grew larger and they were soon big enough to cause us some problems. Pulling up our anchors we headed into the waves at an angle fighting to reach safe shelter. They were the biggest waves we have ever encountered, and I was proud of Renita as she fought the wind and waves like the pioneer woman she is, (we both qualified for pioneer fishing licenses from Wyoming, as we have lived there continually for forty-five years). After a tough paddle we reached protected water, (we both wear our life jackets at all times). At the new spot we only caught small black drum, small catfish, and crabs. Renita even caught a stone crab, but we were unable to land it in the net.

Heading back home we filleted the fish and had enough for three meals, (the white pelican actually has the carcass in its bill and then swallowed it)!

It had been a short but great day.

New Year’s Day we left our house early and headed to Lamar looking for whooping cranes. We had heard the the crane family had put on a show the morning before. Reaching the first field we spotted two cranes feeding, along with sandhills and even a herd of deer.

As they fed another pair waited at a safe distance for the dominant pair to fill up and leave. Whooping cranes are extremely territorial and will fight each other, even stabbing the other with their bills. It has even been documented that a whooping crane killed a feral hog by stabbing it in its skull! Leaving the whooping cranes, we next went to Big Tree. Not a lot was happening there, other than butterflies, but at the pond a large flock of black bellied whistling ducks flew off and I got a good shot of them in flight.

In our rv park, we are blessed to have two great activities directors. Zita and Alan. Each week we have a Thursday night Buffet and on holidays we have special meals. On Christmas day we had two turkeys and a large ham! Everyone else brough a side dish or dessert. There is always too much, and we both have to be careful when we fill our plates.

This year we had a crab and shrimp boil for New Year’s Eve and then on New Year’s Day had a traditional southern celebration. The meal always has, cornbread, collard greens, gumbo, Black eyed peas and mac and cheese. The black-eyed peas are for good luck in the new year, the collard greens, (or boiled cabbage), represents money, and the corn bread represents plentiful food. Again, we ate too much. Now it’s time to catch up on the blog, make some more jewelry, rest inside as a strong cold front has blasted in. Last night we had gale force winds and the temperature dropped from eighty to forty. Tonight, we may have temps in the mid-thirties, and we even have a slight chance of a freeze!