Day Nine – Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. YEA!! Today, I got to see whuppin’ cranes (Whooping Cranes), which are super rare. You can really only see them in only a few places in the country, and even then, only at a certain time of the year. I am so happy to have seen them! There were 11 of them, in 3 different places in the reserve. I also got to see Snow Geese, Roseate Spoonbills, Black Vultures (lots of these), and Common Moorhens. These are all new to my lifelist. I also saw MANY birds that I have already seen, and several I am fairly sure I haven’t seen, but need to identify for sure. I feel like today was a BONANZA of birding! Here are some photos:
Here are some Ruddy Turnstones, a Willet (biting at something in the surf, and a Common Moorhen
And these, my friends, are a Black Vulture, and some Whooping Cranes.
Rich and I went on a month-long road trip in 1999. I am sure I have mentioned it before. We were in Texas during that time, and I glimpsed my first armadillo. Ever since, I have been on a mission to take a decent photo of said armadillo. Armadillos are really interesting animals. They look like little greyish pink articulated footballs. I got a BUNCH of photos of one this time, but Rich was on the right side of the car, and took better photos of one than I. Here are a couple of Rich’s photos.
Today was really great, and I am very grateful to Rich for being patient with my silly animal interests (even though he is sitting here right now watching Monster Bug Wars, and acting very interested…).
Tomorrow, I think we’re starting our trip home. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed, but really…that may be the only thing I am looking forward to. I really am a proponent of ‘endless summer’. That’s my secret dream…chasing summer all over the western hemisphere. Well, I guess it’s not a secret any more.
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Day Eight – Corpus Christi
Today was definitely NOT an exciting day, which is just FINE with me. We got up fairly early and went to breakfast with Aaron and Uncle Jimmy at El Sol de Mexico. I think that’s my favorite breakfast place in Corpus Christi. They have the most amazing machaca anywhere. It’s the real stuff…dried beef (think jerky), eggs, fresh jalapeños, tomatoes and onions, served with rice and beans. A HUGE breakfast, but delicious.
I walked down to the beach, and took a very long walk. There were no people on the beach, but a ton of birds. I was kept company on my stroll by Great-tailed Grackles, Loggerhead Shrikes, A Long-billed Curlew, A Spotted Sandpiper, Rock Pigeons, Semi-Palmated Plovers, Sanderlings, Starlings, Laughing Gulls, and Ring-Billed Gulls. I loved walking along the beach, and I picked up a HUGE pocketful of ‘sea glass’ to make jewelry out of eventually.
Ring-billed Gull, Great-tailed Grackle, Loggerhead Shrike:
European Starling, Laughing Gulls, Spotted Sandpiper:
Rich and I went to a Mexican place called Acapulco for lunch. It wasn’t the chain restaurant they have in SoCal, and we didn’t know what to expect. We’ve had fairly bad luck with finding good Mexican food ANYWHERE in Texas, so we were almost shocked to discover that the food was really good! Still a different style of Mexican than we like, but it was very good!
I took a nap, and we’ve both been enjoying some cable TV. This is part of what makes a vacation nice…NOT doing something every minute. Ahhhhh. I think tomorrow we are going to the Port Aransas area, and maybe I’ll get to see some more bird photos!
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