After keeping up with the blog this week, I accidently deleted my post for Sunday through Wednesday. Here is a short summary for those days.
Sunday, the last day of 2023, started out with another pretty sunrise.
I got hot after our first walk to Crane City and came back and put on short pants. Shortly after, the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. Needless to say, the shorts were ditched for warmer clothing.
This afternoon, we sat on steps along the bay and took in the nature. While we were there, there was a frenzy for the fish scraps between the gulls and the pelicans. It took a while for one pelican to swallow his large piece of fish, but he got it done.
After the frenzy settled down, we looked down the beach and saw a couple of Whooping Cranes foraging along the bay. That didn't last long, when someone decided to walk down the bay to get closer to them. For every step he took toward them, they took a step away. Finally they had enough and flew away.
We got in about 4 miles of strolling and had a fantastic last day of 2023.
Monday, we started the New Year with another gorgeous sunrise.
The cranes seemed to be extra frisky today, showing off their dance moves.
We enjoyed a day of hanging around camp and strolling along the bay.
Tuesday, a Whooping Crane family was feeding along the bay when we were on our way to Aransas NWR.
We had another enjoyable day at Aransas NWR, especially when we came upon a couple of Whoopers that were close to the auto tour loop, giving us ample opportunity for up close pictures.
On our drive to Magnolia Beach and Indianola Beach we saw hundreds of Snow Geese and a few Greater White Fronted Geese.
We made a Wally World run then got back to camp after traveling 156 miles today.
Wednesday, we took a trip to Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, and Mustang Island State Park. It was supposed to be in the 60's today. Instead, it stayed cloudy, windy, with the temps in the low 50's.
The cranes were enjoying foraging in the puddles from last night's rain as we were passing by on 8th Street.
We saw a Whooping Crane family near Charley's North Pasture.
We saw all kinds of waterfowl at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. Although it was a cold viewing day.
We took a drive to Mustang Island State Park before heading back on the ferry.
We rode along the bay in Rockport and Fulton, before settling in for the day.
Thursday, started out with sunshine and a little bit of a breeze. A welcome sight after yesterdays cold, cloudy, day.
On our way to Aransas NWR, we checked on Crane City and they were still enjoying the fresh puddles of water in the pasture from the rain 2 nights ago.
Ole' eagle eye spotted a different looking duck at Jones Lake. After processing our pictures, we have a new species, a Common Goldeneye.
We had a great view of the bay while having our picnic snack. By the time we got back to camp, the clouds had rolled in.
Friday we spent the cloudy morning catching up on the blog and pictures. Finally, the sun came out and we got out and about around noonish.
We made a quick check on Crane City then headed to Rockport to hike. Our first hike was Tule Creek Hike and Bike Trail. It was a very enjoyable hike of about 2.5 miles.
Our second hike was a nice relaxing stroll at the Tule Marsh East Trail.
We hiked part of the Memorial Park Hike and Bike Trail. After hiking about 3 miles, we were ready to get back to the bay life.
We had a nice peaceful sleep Friday night, until the air boats started taking off one after another before 6 a.m. We managed to finally go back to sleep and woke up to the sound of the cranes around 7:15 am. What a way to start the day!!
We did our usual lounging around until about noonish. Then took a stroll to Crane City. This never gets old.
It was warm enough today that I was able to wear short pants although it was a little bit cool walking the pier at Goose Island State Park.
We checked out the butterfly garden, there was quite a frenzy of bees and butterflies, then hiked the Turk's Cap Trail. We enjoyed the feeders at the beginning and the end of the trail, which the birds enjoyed as well.
We detoured by Crane City for one last look of the day. That look took a while. The sandhill cranes and the whooping cranes were enjoying the fresh water baths in the fields and we enjoyed watching them. After all, Saturday was bath day back in the day!
We got back to camp, processed some pics, and called it a night.
