To catch up anyone who happens on this post that isn’t hooked into my Facebook, I’m on my first post-retirement swing around the country, mostly the south this time.  I had gone from San Antonio down to Rockport, Texas, hoping to get a boat tour of Aransas National Wildlife Area, but the boat had a motor go kaput.  The big draw to the preserve is whooping cranes.  (I met some birders who came all the way from England hoping to see them, so my disappointment was as nothing compared to theirs.)

So this morning I decided to at least drive around it, not seriously hoping to see the cranes but hoping so see something.  And I did, a few things.  Might have seen more except I was reluctant to leave the van because of the mosquitoes.

I saw more than I got pictures of.  But pictures first.

Here’s what I learned from the birders (who also decided to drive around the preserve) is called a Night Heron:

I also saw a bunch of egrets—big ones, so I think they are Great Snowy Egrets?  Or some such?

Then there were these red birds, that I would call Cardinals except that they don’t look quite like the cardinals I saw in Ohio in my youth.  Not as red, and scruffier looking.  But still could be cardinals for all I know.

 

Perhaps the coolest birds I saw ( or glimpsed, via binoculars) was roseate spoonbills.  Identification also thanks to the British birders.  Those blurry whitish things in the back of this pic are a few of them, but I think I glimpsed 4 others before I got the camera out.  You’ll have to take my word for it, though 🙂

And of course I saw buzzards.  Wouldn’t even comment on them except for a couple of things; one was a pair (here you only see one) that had claimed the top of the observation tower at the end of the drive:

The other is that these buzzards have white round spots, largish, at the ends of their wings.  You’ll have to take my word for this too, but that and the fact that their head is not naked makes them different from my familiar buzzards out west.

The last pics I have are of my first (hopefully not last) alligator in the wild.  Can you see it?

How about here?

I know you can see it here.

Things I saw but didn’t get pictures of:

Peccaries: a bunch of them, behind us (me and CJ) on the trail.  Or maybe juvenile feral pigs, which are apparently a problem in the preserve.  I also think I heard one being gotten by an alligator—sounds like a distressed pig, and low grunting that could have been the alligator.  I know I saw a feral pig, adult, later on—it was very aware of the vehicle even at some distance.

White tail deer.  Just glimpsed it as it disappeared into the brush.

One more thing I heard but didn’t see or get a picture of: turkeys.  Very distinctive gobbles

Overall, the preserve seemed dry (no water in “lakes”, no visible water in “marshy” areas), and I didn’t see much in several miles of driving.  So I headed out, with the main goal of getting east of Houston today.  And have made it.

To a perfect spot: Anahuac National Wildlife Preserve.  I’m parked out at the end of a gravel road, I think at the Bay Boat Ramp area, and saw more birds while driving in here than I did in the entire drive around Aransas.  It’s also more beautiful scenically—in the morningI’ll take pictures and post them either here or on FB.  I think I’m even legit—overnight parking is permitted “to facilitate night fishing”.  But still permitted.  No campfires allowed, but that is not an issue.  And I’m the only person out here.  I think I’ll walk and drive around here tomorrow before moving on.