Sand, sea, shells...but no birds?

When we learned that our friend in Houston was not going to be in town during the time that we would be there - I took the opportunity to reroute us to the Gulf Coast, near Corpus Christi. I had heard so much about this area on how great the beaches were and what great birding areas were around there, that I was anxious to see them & try out my new bird book (thanks to my Zoo team!).

We checked the weather, clear and sunny. Found a place in Rockport, so off we went!

By that afternoon we were in the Toyota driving around Rockport looking for beaches and birds! We found the beaches. Soft, soft sand. Like baby powder soft. Lots of shells. Birds, well, that was something else. Where were all the birds? We kept driving. One or two here & there...they must be somewhere else? We finally gave it up for the day, and went to dinner along the shore.

Next day, map in hand, we had it planned out - we would go up the coast to Corpus Christi, including the ferry at Point Aransas, and hug the coastline all the way back down. We did. Stopping all along every nook, every "bird observation" location we could find. All we saw were a hand full of American White & Brown Pelicans, Franklin's & Ring-billed Gulls, a nice collection of Canvasback & Redhead Ducks and one, just one Great Blue Heron. That's it. This was supposed to be the Whooping Crane capitol! A big celebration for them is happening in a week, but could I see any? Noooo, not one! They can't all be waiting until next week to show up for goodness sakes!! I just kept thinking that we were looking in all the wrong places, but Whooping Cranes aren't small, easily hidden birds!

Darn, all the way to Gulf of Mexico and no Whooping Crane spotting...guess we will just have to come back!



































































































If you wish to view the rest of the photos from this trip, you can at my Flickr account at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74905158@N04/

...one the road in Texas, Marie