Almost off the schedule, we kept our date with a trio of Whooping Cranes

There are days, and then there are DAYS. Toda was a DAY. Not only did we continue our help in relieving the Texas drought, but Joan realized a small dream of hers to see up close, personal and in the wild one of the very rare remaining Whooping Cranes.

Joan watching a trio of Whooping Cranes

It only took a six-hour, 368-mile round trip to Rockport, Texas and a 3-hour boat ride out to the Aranas Wildlife Refuge. We dodged the raindrops long enough to view three adolescent Whooping Cranes (called a cohort) in the marshland of the refuge.

Let’s back up the story a little. A couple days ago we were talking about any loose ends from our stay here in San Antonio. We went through our list of things we wanted to see: Alamo, check. Fredericksburg, check. National Museum of the Pacific War, check. River Walk, check. Whooping Cranes in the wild, no check.

The Skimmer

With the looming trip to Houston with the trailer on the horizon, another long round-trip through Corpus Christi to the wildlife refuge was exactly on my must do list, but I could see that Joan was disappointed when I said we might have to wait for another trip to Texas to see the cranes.

The Whooping Cranes, which migrate 2,400 miles from Canada to Texas each fall after mating, are only in the wildlife refuge and only from November to April, so putting off the viewing would probably mean another couple years, or more before we could see them.

So we made the decision on Thursday, that we would make the trip and check this event off Joan’s bucket list on this visit. We were not sorry.

A really bad Wal Mart

With a reservation for a 1 p.m. boat ride on “The Skimmer” we had to leave San Antonio on or before 9 a.m. to make sure we arrived in time for boarding. We actually arrived with nearly 90 minutes to spare so we did a little sightseeing around Rockport.

We found an abandoned Wal Mart, but we also found the Fulton Mansion, the home of George Fulton, a 19^th Century cattle baron, who fought on the side of Texas in 1836 (obviously not at the Alamo because all those defenders died in that battle). Because of school tours we were not able to tour the mansion, but I took a couple of photos just to prove we were there.

A really nice Mansion, Fulton Mansion

We boarded the boat about 12:50 p.m. along with 26 of our newest friends. Most of the folks on the boat were really serious “birders,” which put Joan in good company and me, not so much. This is what I know about birds: They fly and there are lots of different kinds. Joan, on the other hand, has books on identification and is pretty sharp in the bird identification business.

The sky looked threatening, but the rain seemed to be holding off to the west while we raced across the water to the wildlife refuge. On the way we spotted many Blue Herons (Joan’s favorite bird), Reddish Egret, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbills, Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans, Anhingas, Double-Crested Cormorants, Common Loons, Short-billed Dowitcher, several different kinds of ducks, Turkey Vultures, Red Tailed Hawk, Curlews, gulls, of course, American Avocet, and probably more that we can’t remember now.

A "cohort" of adolescent Whooping Cranes

So basically for Joan this was the Super Bowl of bird watching. I enjoyed seeing her enjoy the day. Unfortunately, the weather turned nasty in a hurry and our captain did the right thing and headed for shore when he saw nasty weather moving in.

And it moved in with a vengeance, so it was a good thing he started in when he did. We drove through a heavy sea squall that made it difficult to see much further than the outline of the boat.

I spent some time on the bridge with the captain earlier in the trip and noticed he had some really up-to-date technology and radar so I was not concerned about the lack of visibility, even though there was some traffic in the channel.

The closer we got to shore, the better the weather and by the time we arrived at the dock it was just a light rain. That changed within a few minutes of our arrival as the same squall we had just escaped arrived on shore. By that time we were in the Tahoe and safe from the rain.

Me and the USS Lexington

Because we arrived back about 45 minutes earlier than we expected, we changed our plans to eat at a dockside restaurant and drove back to Corpus Christi for dinner to put some time and distance between us and Rockport.

On the way to Corpus Christi we made a detour so I could get some photos of the USS Lexington, CV-16, which is docked just south of Corpus Christi and is now a museum ship.

When we arrived a group of high school students were carrying luggage aboard, apparently for a weekend retreat on the old carrier.  With the photos done we headed on to Corpus Christi for dinner at a restaurant we found in our Texas guide book.

Water Street Seafood Company

Water Street Seafood Restaurant did not disappoint. Joan had the crab cakes and I had the steak and shrimp and both were very, very good.

The rest of the trip home took a couple hours, most in a steady downpour.

When we arrived home we were glad and happy, especially Joan, that we had made the effort to see the endangered Whooping Cranes. Just to give you an idea, at one time in the 1930s there were only 15 known Whooping Cranes left. They had fallen victim to excessive hunting and habitat destruction.

An aggressive breeding program and habitat protection has helped restore this migrating flock (there is also a non-migrating flock in Florida) to a healthy 500 birds, but it took 70 years to get them there.

Female Whooping Cranes lay two eggs, but only take care of one egg. Over the years biologists have “liberated” the abandoned egg, incubated it artificially and raised the hatchlings to improve the numbers.

The reason for our trip

Humans even dress in Whooping Crane suits to imitate the mothers and then teach the hatchlings to migrate with the use of an ultralight aircraft. There has only been limited success with that and the Florida birds mostly don’t migrate.

The birds can stand 5-feet tall, have a wingspan of 90-inches and weigh about 16 pounds. They are impressive looking birds and I’m glad they have not been wiped out.

But now I’m wiped out from the drive and will end this post here.