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| Belted Kingfisher in the fog |
I also visited Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, which is on
the other side of Corpus Christi and is even more remote than Laguna Atascosa
(take food and drinks and gas up the car because it is a looooong way to anything). My tip took me through lots of recently plowed fields; I suspect it's much prettier in the spring/summer when there are crops, although I think a lot is cotton, which is not that pretty.
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| Debris -- and they are still cleaning up |
The drive was interesting because I saw lots of the effects of the catastrophic Hurricane Harvey that made landfall here. It’s been less than a year and there are
many destroyed buildings, downed trees and piles and piles of debris.
Some of the highway medians have been repurposed
as dumps, with football-field-sized two-story-high piles of trash. I even had
trouble finding my hotel because it had no sign on the street GPS routed me to and all the buildings around it
were destroyed.
I made one stop on the way, just off the
highway, where I saw some Black-Necked Stilts ...
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| All on one leg |
Semi-Palmated Plovers ...
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| On the beach |
And, Short-Billed Dowitchers (new) ...
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| Hunting |
Then, right before I reached the Refuge, I witnessed a few Sandhill
Cranes doing their mating dance on a private road that goes into a ranch ...
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| Courtship dance |
Located on the Gulf Coast northeast of Corpus Christi, Aransas was created when continental glaciers piled up ridges of sand along what is now the Texas Gulf Coast, creating a vast island of which Aransas is a remnant.
Sediment filled barrier lagoons, joining the
island to the mainland.
Grasses and trees invaded the ridges creating a home
for Ice Age mammals including lions, camels, bison, bears, mammoths and mastodons.
The Refuge was established in 1937 to serve as "a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife..." and "... for use as an inviolate sanctuary, or for any other management purpose, for migratory birds ..."
Today, Aransas is best known as a focal point of the worldwide effort to rescue Whooping Cranes from extinction.
When, in 1941, only 15 Whooping Cranes survived in the wild, Aransas became a sanctuary for them and conservation efforts stepped up.
Aransas NWR has an otherworldly look -- boosted quite a bit when I visited by fog. There are vast wetlands ...
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| Wetlands |
... and huge old oak trees ...
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| Oaks |
... Some of the trails wind through twisted branches and vines ...
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| Scary-looking |
... and some are elevated boardwalks through the wetlands, which helps in viewing the wide array of waterbirds.
Despite Hurricane Harvey, the Refuge is in fairly good shape.
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| Boardwalk |
It has a temporary Visitors Center (the main VC was closed after Harvey and the current one is actually called a "Visitor Contact Center" because it has no exhibits or even restrooms), many of the ancient oaks are a tangle of
debris and one trail is still blocked by downed trees.
But, the main roads are
good and I was able to spend a lot of time exploring.
There are portable restrooms near the VC, but actual vault toilets throughout the park.
In the wetlands area, I saw a number of birds, many of which evaded my camera. But. I did catch a few, with several new finds.
A Green Heron whose crown went up and down as he hunted ...
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| Watch the crest |
A secretive Sora (lifer!) ...
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| Very hard to see |
A Marsh Wren ...
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| Hiding in the hedges |
A pair of White-Winged Doves, striking a very dove-like pose ...
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| Looks like a good Valentine's Day post |
A Greater Yellow Legs ...
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| See the legs through the water? |
Some Eastern Bluebirds (lifers) ...
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| You can see how overcast it was |
Eastern Kingbirds ...
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| Posing |
Tri-Colored Herons ...
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| Lots and lots of Herons here |
Northern Cardinals ...
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| A female in the bushes |
There were very few people there ( a few tourists and what looked like a high-school-level club or class) and I found myself alone
most of the time. When I first arrived, I pulled down a side road so that I
could get my cameras ready. Wouldn’t you know it, a small Gray Fox ran across
the road and disappeared? I never saw another one!!! ARRRGGGHHH.
Aransas has a high observation tower that would be useful for observing Whooping Cranes. When I went, it showed me only fog. If you plan on going up (especially if you have kids), take some wipes or hand sanitizer -- it is covered with bird poop, possibly from Turkey Vultures.
I spent quite a bit of time photographing an alligator at the base of the tower. Later, I found out that it was dead (well, the quote was, "we are pretty sure its dead") ...
Lots of White-tailed Deer ...
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| A common sighting |
A Nine-Banded Armadillo ...
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| A truly Texas critter |
An Eastern Meadowlark ...
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| Songful |
American Kestrels ...
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| Taking off! |
Feral Pigs (I thought I had found Javelinas -- darn!) ...
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| Feral pigs can be a big environmental issue |
… and, then, I did. First, I saw a big Javelina boar run into tall grass (you can see the obvious difference between it and a Feral Pig) ...
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| Poor sighting |
Then, I finally found a group of female and juvenile Javelinas that stood still
long enough to be photographed ...
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| Good sighting |
A Javelina, also called a Collared Peccary, is a medium-sized hoofed mammal found throughout Central America, South America and the Southwest.
They are often confused with the pig family that includes both domestic and feral pigs and hogs. Those pigs are from Europe and Asia; the Javelina is a New World animal.
They are three to four feet long and usually weigh about 44 to 88 lbs. Like a pig, a Javelina has a snout and small eyes and uses only its middle two digits for walking.
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| Native, not introduced |
Omnivores, they eat insects, grubs and, occasionally, small animals, although they prefer roots, grasses, seeds, fruit and cacti.
Pigs and Javelinas can be differentiated by the shape of the canine tooth, or tusk. In European pigs, the tusk is long and curves around on itself.
In Javelinas, the tusk is short and straight. I didn't get close enough to truly observe the tusks!
I was so excited to see them that I broke my cardinal rule of always pulling fully off the road and parking (that causes lots of lost chances). I just stopped in the middle of the road and walked slowly toward the Javelinas, snapping as I went. I retuned to the car when the javelinas started to move off. There were so few people on the Refuge that I saw only four other cars on the wildlife loop (and that was in four drives!), so leaving a running car in the middle of the road wasn't a problem. Plus, had a car come by, it would have prevented it from scaring off the javelinas.
Generally speaking, one should always pull into a turnout or onto the shoulder so that all tires are off the road. Here, it was wet and muddy and there were some muddy drop-offs.
Although Aransas is famous for Whooping Cranes, I saw just
one (new) – at a great distance ...
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| Another poor sighting |
Fortunately, the Visitor Center volunteer told me
that I could find more near Goose Island State Park, which was near my hotel in Rockport.
So, I checked it out and that will be my next post.
Oh, and as I was driving out, I saw some raptors in the recently plowed fields.
Red-tailed Hawks ...
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| This one is a juvenile |
I found that it was interesting that in the Rio Grande Valley, I saw lots and lots of Harris's Hawks (I counted 15 on the road out of town) and I saw only one Red-Tailed Hawk.
Once I passed through the Border Patrol Station (in the Southwest, Border Patrol Stations/Checkpoints are often more than 100 miles from the actual border), I saw only one Harris's Hawks and the Red-tails started to pick up. perhaps harris's hawks don't have their papers.
Plus I saw more Crested Caracaras ...
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| More common than I thought |
I didn't even know they lived in the Corpus Christi area! I guess I wasn't paying a lot of attention all those years I lived in Texas.
I enjoyed Aransas, especially the solitude. The fog, once again, hampered photography, even close up ...
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| Ruby-Crowned Kinglet |
... but, I found it very sooothing. I suspect I could see many more birds in May, when the weather might be better. But, then, I would really be wary of mosquitoes -- it's wetlands!
Trip date: February 6-11, 2018
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