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First Day on the Road

Saturday, February 13, 2016

I spent much of February running back and forth to Tulsa for some health issues, so was not prepared for this Earthwatch. After hastily packing last night, I spent the night awake with insomnia. I think I managed 4 hours of sleep. Nonetheless, sans breakfast and coffee, I picked up Deb Hirt—a photographer acquaintance who has set her sights on bird photography and an MS in Ornithology—at 7 am for the drive to the Texas coast. 

This is our fourth overnight birding trip together: South Padre Island, TX, April 2014; High Island, TX, April 2015; Kearney, Nebraska, Sandhill Cranes March 2015, and now Whooping Cranes at Aransas NWR, February 2016. We have also taken day trips to many nearby birding areas. Deb has no car and while she has a driver’s license has not driven in several years. I presently have no birding buddy. So the fit is good. I drive and help Deb with her bird I.D. and Deb takes photos of the birds we see.

It’s a 10-hour drive to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on the Texas coast, so we planned to break up the drive by spending Saturday night in Waco, TX, where I had reserved with a Quality Inn,. I also planned to have Deb brief me on the Expedition Briefing while I drove so that I would be better prepared when we got to Aransas.

Briefing in Brief:

The refuge is 115,000 acres of scrub-shrub and saltmarsh vegetation, one of 556 national protective sites run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Established in 1937 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as a safe haven for threatened and endangered species, Aransas NWR is the principal wintering grounds for the last natural migratory flock of whooping cranes in the world. This wild western flock is at about 308 individuals, up from an all-time low of just 15 in 1941, 75 years ago.

Research aims:

· Better understanding the coastal marsh ecosystem to determine the effects of both natural and anthropogenic impacts on coastal habitats and whooping crane resources

· Investigating patterns that drive whooping crane territory quality and food resource availability

· Using data gathered to inform future conservation efforts that could help lead to whooping crane population recovery (When the flock has reached 1000 individuals, many scientists and Earthwatchers will consider their work well done.)

Data collection methods:

1. Ecosystem assessments of vegetation and water quality

· Noting GPS location of crane groups’ territory (cranes must be off the territory or at a great distance before these data can be collected)

· Recognizing wolfberry plants and counting number of red and number of green berries on each in five 30-foot sample areas 15-meters apart

· Counting number and size of blue crabs each 100-meters

· Gathering water salinity, conductivity, temperature, and location of sample

2. Conducting wading bird observations from boats and observation blinds

· Identifying and recording crane behaviors

· Identifying individual birds and family groups (through leg bands affixed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and by color; the young birds have rusty brown heads/necks and usually hang out with their parents who, like humans, mate for life but occasionally get a “divorce.”)

· Identifying sub-adults (they have no rusty coloration but have no territory and hang out together, generally in larger groups of 4-8 birds)

Internet photo of Whooping Crane family; youngster with rusty head in center

One of the rarest and largest birds in North America, whooping cranes (Grus Americana) grow five feet tall and can exceed a seven foot wing span. Despite their impressive stature, these birds are facing an uphill battle to survive. With increasing development, expansion in the agricultural, industrial and tourism sectors, and shifting climate, the Guadalupe-San Antonio and Mission-Aransas Estuaries are experiencing increasing amounts of stress from humans and the environment in supply vs. demand for freshwater.

All of our driving this our first day was south on I-35, a busy interstate highway. In Waco we holed up in a Quality Inn that I had reserved. The Inn was old and the room layout funky with both beds foot to foot in front of the windows/air conditioner with the closet and bathroom around a corner. We unpacked and then Deb, who works in the kitchen of Stillwater’s Olive Garden, treated me to dinner at a local Olive Garden, where she received a discount. Before going to the Olive Garden we tried unsuccessfully to track down the Waco Lake Wetlands but ran out of light.  It was a tiring, boring drive on the Interstate, but we saw many vultures in the sky and kestrels on electrical wires along the way, as well as a handful of red-tailed hawks.

Arrival & Briefing

Sunday, February 14, 2016

This morning, after a motel breakfast, we jumped on TX-77 south and drove directly to the coast on our second day on the road. TX-77, jumps back and forth from 70 mph to 55 mph, and in quite a few commercial spots to 35 mph. Nonetheless it was more interesting and less nerve wracking than I-35. My iphone map app does not have Hopper’s Landing on it (Google does), but does have Austwell, TX, which is the town the Landing is in. So we first located Austwell, a tiny town surrounded by vast cotton and sorghum fields. Then through trial and error we located Hopper’s Landing, an eclectic group of cabins (shacks?), RV park, and a waterside bar owned by Adela & Butch Hopper. We did not stop in Hopper’s Landing, though, because it was about 2 pm and our PI, Dr. Jeff Wozniak of Sam Houston State University, had gone to the Corpus Christi Airport to pick up those Earthwatchers who were flying in. Nick, the expedition coordinator, had asked those who were driving to arrive after 4. Thus . . .we went directly to ANWR, Deb hoping to get in a few photographs before the Expedition began.

The two of us had driven to ANWR last spring after our High Island birding jaunt so we were somewhat familiar with it. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and then walked a few of the many trails and boardwalks off the main road.

After exploring the trails for a bit—not seeing much besides alligators, coots, and herons—we headed back to Hopper’s Landing on San Antonio Bay. No one seemed to be about, but I recognized the cabin from a photo of it in the briefing, so parked. Soon, Lindsay Tiegs, a woman working on her Master’s degree under Jeff Wozniak, our Principal Investigator, came from one of the cabins and welcomed us to the Expedition. It was not long before others who had driven arrived, and then Jeff pulled in with the volunteers who had flown to Corpus Christi. We had a brief, informal hello before choosing which of the three cabins we would sleep in.

Dr. Jeff Wozniak sitting on the tailgate of the pickup explaining our sleeping and eating arrangements
 before we were driven to ANWR for briefing and dinner; note the long shadows. Photo by Terri Tipping.

We then unloaded our gear and were driven in a van and a pickup to ANWR and a viewing platform in the refuge for more briefing and a group photo. Deb, Ellie, Barb, and I wound up in cabin #2. Cabin #1 housed the men—Dick, Jeff, Ken, and Mike—and cabin #3, down he road a bit, housed Sue, Mary, Lindsay, Jean, and Terri. All of the cabins were adequate but seaside shabby.

The team at Aransas NWR standing in bird guano and blowing in the wind with San Antonio Bay behind us.

 L to R back to front: Dick Dawson, Mike Brady, Mary Erspamer, Ken Dowell, Sue Ordway, me, Deb Hirt, Jean Schaffert, Barb Dowell (blue hoodie) Terri Tipping, Ellie Dawson,  Lindsay Tiegs, SHSU MS student.

P.S. Sue and I do not really have pointed heads and that’s not smoke rising form Dick’s pate, either.

I cannot now remember whether it was before or after the photo that we traveled a little farther into the Refuge to its viewing tower. I am a height wienie (my knees turn to jelly and I cannot get up the high-above-the-canopy towers in the rainforest), but this viewing tower had no open steps and a gradual ramp, so I happily walked to the top. From the top one could view the salt marshes. Way off in the distance we could also view three white specks that were whooping cranes. When Deb and I climbed the tower last spring, I looked down and saw a bear foraging in the scrub. Well, not a bear but a large, black, feral hog. It was the first I’d ever seen, but the Refuge was full of these invasive critters. On this Earthwatch we saw a pair and their 10 (count ‘em) piglets. Ouch!

View from the ANWR tower. We passed the tower each morning on our way to the research site, and each morning it was
festooned with vultures. The board walkway to the top was splashed white with bird guano. Internet photo.

After the observation tower we were taken to the ANWR Volunteer Building behind the Visitor’s Center. This building contained a full kitchen, laundry room, and restrooms. It was at one end of an RV park where the volunteers had their RVs. We would eat all of our meals here, and gather here before dinner for an end-of-day summary of our collected data.

Those are two sandhill crane decoys painted to look like whooping cranes and tied to the street sign by their necks. It is legal to hunt sandhill cranes, thus the decoys, but illegal, of course, to hunt endangered whooping cranes. When we were there Texas was prosecuting a man who had shot two in December near Aransas NWR. I don't know the outcome of that trial but a man who confessed to shooting a whooping crane earlier was fined $85,000.

Meals were prepared communally by both the volunteers and the researchers. Everyone took a hand at food preparation and/or cleanup. Our first evening’s meal was spaghetti and meatballs. Other meals were burgers, Cajun Boil, baked chicken, and chicken or pork fajitas. All meals were especially tasty after a long day in the field and, particularly on this first day, after another long day on the road. At the ANWR Volunteer Center Jeff also gave a presentation about the goals and methods we would use in our research, and answered many questions.

Lunch sandwiches being prepared and breakfast being prepared and eaten  in the volunteer buiding; that is Deb left foreground

Back to Hopper’s Landing and bed around 9 p.m. and not a moment too soon for me. Below Terri Tippings photo of the sunset we would view over San Antonio Bay each evening,

International Crane Foundation

Each morning we ate breakfast at the volunteer center at 7, we made sandwiches for our lunch, gathered a few bars or chips or other snacks from the snack table, and then went on field trips, or worked on training and observation techniques both in the classroom and the field.

Liz Smith answering questions on our introduction to her and the
International Crane Foundation at her office in Woodsboro, TX.

On our first morning we traveled to Woodsboro, TX, and Liz Smith’s office. Liz is a Whooping Crane Conservation Biologist with the International Crane Foundation (ICF). She gave us a good talk on her research on "sea-level rise and storm surge effects on coastal habitat change, and promoting community advocacy for conservation planning and coastal protection." Her efforts are being undertaken with the specific goal of ensuring quality wintering habitat for the Whooping Crane as its populations continue to increase. In the winter, Liz works at the ICF captive breeding and reintroduction facilities in Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Skimmer Tour

On one of our initial days, we traveled to Rockport for a 3-hour tour on Tommy Moore’s whooping crane Tour Boat, Skimmer. Tommy’s whooping crane tours into the shallow waters of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge are his specialty from November through April. There were other tourists on the boat also, but we Earthwatchers climbed to the open topside deck where camera tripods were securely lashed to the railings so that photographers such as Deb could take photographs and we all could enjoy excellent views of the shallow bay and its wildlife and cranes.

Blurry pic of Tommy's boat captured from his website.

On the tour, Tommy pointed out many birds as well as alerting us to the numerous dolphins that swam in our wake. 

The photo above is from the Internet, but it is one that Deb Hirt
tried hard to capture from the Skimmer's top deck.  See Deb's shots from the Skimmer below. 

Laughing Gulls; Photo, Deb Hirt

American White Pelican; Photo, Deb Hirt

Brown Pelican; Photo, Deb Hirt

Osprey with fish it snagged; it kept flying ahead and landing on sandbars and
navigational markers hoping to eat its catch, but we would approach in Skimmer
and it would fly farther on; Photo, Deb Hirt. See Mike Brady's photo of same bird, below

American Oystercatcher; Photo, Deb Hirt

Mike Brady's photo of the osprey that had caught a fish and was searching for a quiet place to eat it,

 i.e., anywhere but near the Skimmer; bird looks pretty frazzled and wet but determined

Brown Pelican, Photo, Mike Brady

 Brown Pelican, Photo, Mike Brady

 Long-billed Curlew, Photo Mike Brady

Willet, Photo, Mike Brady; the dark end of its bill blends with the shore but if you look 
closely the open tip can be seen against the water

Speaking of Oystercatchers, this area was a paradise for both bird and human oyster catchers. Above Lindsay, Jeff, Ellie, and Mike talk to a guy loading bags of oysters for the market. Islands of oyster shells give birds a place to rest, and many beaches, like the one below, are made of washed up oyster shells 

That evening, when we got back to Hopper's Landing, we gathered in the Hopper's bar and tallied the day’s sightings while Jeff prepared burgers: Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Eared Grebe, American White Pelican, Brown pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Neo-tropic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Reddish Egret, White Ibis, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Mottled Duck, Pintail, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Northern Harrier, Crested Caracara, American Kestrel, American Coot, Sandhill Crane, Whooping Crane, Black-bellied Plover, Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, Long-billed Curlew, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, Long-billed Dowitcher, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Forster’s Tern, Rock Pigeon, Morning Dove, Belted Kingfisher, European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle.

Snowy Egret; Photo Mike Brady

Tricolored Heron, Photo Mike Brady

Great Blue Heron, Photo, Mike Brady

Mike Brady's photo of White Ibis

Wild Turkeys and Black Wingtips

Photo of two tom turkeys that Deb took on Stillwater, OK,
Christmas Birdcount, 2014. I love the female giving them the once-over. 

Each morning when entering the Reserve for breakfast we would see a large flock of wild turkeys. One day when Lindsay was teaching us how to recognize Wolfberry, several Horned Larks lit near us at the boat ramp. The ANWR was filled with Northern Mockingbirds, and we often saw Sandhill Cranes, Caracara, and both Black and Turkey Vultures. We also saw both Eastern and Western Kingbirds, Eastern Phoebes, and Swamp Sparrows.

Mike Brady's photo of both Turkey Vultures (on railing) and Black Vultures (on roof). I've heard that the black vultures are a problem in parts of Florida. They perch in numbers on  rooftops and cool themselves by pooping on their legs and feet, thus making a mess of the roof

White Pelicans were plentiful and because of their black wingtips often caught our eye when flying in the distance. One day when my team was doing a vegetation survey, a large flock of White Ibis flew over. These birds are also white with black-tipped wings in flight. I have tried to discover the purpose of black wingtips— gulls, wood storks, kittiwakes, and snow geese are other white species with black or dark wingtips also — but my forays on Google have not solved that mystery, though one article suggested (but didn't prove conclusively) that black feathers had more keratin and were tougher, like fingernails.That would make sense as most of these birds are large and all are are frequent endurance flyers.

American White pelican in flight; Internet photo

Whooping Cranes in flight; Internet photo

White Ibis in flight; Internet photo

Observations & Assessments

Lindsay and Jeff filled our early days with training in the techniques we were to use to gather data on the whooping cranes: We would observe the cranes through binoculars and record their behavior every 15-seconds over 20-minute intervals. One or two volunteers were observers, one the timer, and one the recorder. At first, the team observed only one crane each observer, but by the end of the week we were assured that crane observation teams would be capable of observing 2 or even 3 cranes simultaneously. I liked the observer role best and could have observed 2 whoopers at the same time at the end of the week, but I never got the chance.

Sue, Mary, Ellie, Lindsay, and Dick observing cranes on the spit of land north of the boathouse; this is the area on which I and my team did a vegetation assessment later in the expedition. Photo Terri Tipping.

Our Crane Observations included noting and recording the following behaviors:

• Feeding/foraging — Any actions related to obtaining and swallowing food: pecking, scanning probing, head throw-back, searching with head lowered
• Comfort — Stretching, scratching, feather ruffling, preening
• Locomotion — Walking, running, or flying
• Interaction — Crane responding to an action of another crane, includes courtship and agonistic (aggressive ) behaviors such as stick throwing
• Alert — Erecting and stiffening of body and neck in attempt to locate source of threat; neck stretched up, head at alert
• Rest — Crane at ease, no movement and no body part active; neck relaxed “s”
• No Data (ND) — Crane is out of sight behind bushes or in a depression

We also recorded the following data with each observation:

• GPS Transmitter? Black prior to 2011; then colored with numbers; note with “GPS (color/number)
• Leg Band? Note leg (R or L) and colors, beginning with top band color; use A=Aluminum, B= Blue, BK= Black, G=Green, R=Red, W=White, Y=Yellow

Note the yellow-over-red leg bands on the adult in the center.
This photo was taken by Terri Tipping,and and those below by Mike Brady when the cranes got too close and the team was pinned down for a period. More about that later. If one were recording the behaviors of this family, the one on the left would be C, Comfort because it is preening; the one in the center is at A, Alert; and the youngster appears to be A, Alert, also and looking toward Terri. 

Sneaked shot of whooping crane calling when team was in lockdown; Photo Mike Brady

Youngster (brown head) and adult; Photo sneaked by Mike Brady when his team was in lockdown

With each 20-minute observation period, the Observation Team also recorded the following: 

Date, Site, Observers, Wind Speed (m/sec)/Direction, Air Temperature, GPS Coordinates (N, W), Range (in meters), Compass direction/heading, Habitat type (Saltmarsh, Upland, Urban), and the total number of cranes present at the time of the observation.

We volunteers were divided into two teams each morning and afternoon. One team went out on the boat and observed the cranes in the territories they had established along the inland waterway and off the coast of Aransas NWR (Rattlesnake Island, Ayres Island, Sundown Bay, Dunham Bay, etc.). The other group observed the cranes in their territories near the boat house. Lindsay trained here on the techniques for conducting survey and observations also. Those on land in the morning usually opted for the boat in the afternoon and vice versa. We ate our lunch sandwiches from a cooler in the boathouse.

Mary, Ellie, Jean, Jeff, Terri on the inland waterway; that's a barge and tugboat in the distance; Photo Mike Brady

A boat team on one of their runs; Jeff with thumbs up; Photo Mike Brady

Jeff out of the boat and in the marsh preparatory to gathering data; he and we Earthwatchers had special permission to conduct our research in the Refuge; Photo Mike Brady

When the cranes moved far enough off areas where we had observed them, we then went into the marsh to conduct ecosystem assessments of vegetation and water quality where the cranes had been.

Terri and Jean measuring off a section for vegetation survey; Photo, Mike Brady

Mike recording data gleaned by Earthwatchers; Photo Mike Brady

When conducting a vegetation survey we counted the number of red and green wolfberries, the number of blue crabs, and measured water depth, temperature, salinity, and conductivity. Below are photos of the wolfberry plant/berries, blue crabs, and other flora of interest in ANWR.

Wolfberry, raccoon eating wolfberry, and blue crab in defensive posture. These crabs are a favorite food of whooping cranes, but  pack a powerful pinch. Jeff and Lindsay had a photo of one attached to a Whooping Crane’s tongue. Ouch!! It is interesting to note that the salt marsh wolfberries are Carolina Wolfberry (Lycium carolinianum) not the better known Lycium Chinensis, native to China and known as goji berry. 

Top left clockwise: Yaupon; unknown species of grass, mangroves at water’s edge (Jean’s photo); prickly pear
cactus nearly smothered in greenbriar, There were little bluestem grasses also and large yuccas just beginning to
send out their flower spikes.

Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) is a prevalent tall shrub in the Refuge. Its scientific name is unattractive (understatement). Native Americans used the leaves and stems to brew a tea, commonly thought to be called asi or black drink for male-only purification and unity rituals. The ceremony included vomiting. Europeans incorrectly believed that it was Yaupon that caused the vomiting; thus they saddled the plant with its very unappealing Latin name. 

Close-up of a blue crab that pinched Mike Brady on the delicate webbing
between thumb and forefinger; Photo Mike Brady

ANWR Animals

We also saw several animals besides birds while in the ANWR. Most abundant were feral hogs and alligators. There were three alligators sunning on the bank across Jones Lake, one quite large, but they were too distant for a cell phone photo, so the photo below is from a birding trip to Padre Island.(Oops! Correction: The photo below was taken at ANWR but is from the Internet. I was too lazy to hunt through my blog photos to find the feral hog photo that Deb took on our birding trip to Padre.)

Feral Hog at ANWR. Packs of them—some with large litters of piglets (we saw a pair with 10 piglets)—dig up pond and lake shorelines and marshes. This Internet photo shows one accompanied by a Great-tailed Grackle

Hog rooted up edge to Jones lake.

Each morning on the way to the field we would see white-tailed deer crossing the road in small groups or see them during our field work as Terri's photo below shows. One evening, we were exiting the park, when the group of us in the van was stopped because a motorcyclist had crashed and a helicopter, a fire truck, and an ambulance were at the scene. We speculated that perhaps the crash occurred because the cyclist was trying to avoid a deer. The speed limit in the park is only 25 mph.

Terri Tipping's photo of White-tailed Deer in the salt marsh

Mike Brady's photo of a fine male white-tail with nice antlers

Or the cyclist may have been trying to avoid a raccoon or possum, both of which we also saw crossing the road. Each evening—but the one on which Barb decided to get a photo of it—we would see an armadillo rooting around near the entrance to the park, and fox squirrels were common among the acorns dropped by the live oaks. Once, on returning in the boat from field work, Mary spotted a family of coyotes walking along the raised berm shortly before we entered the canal to the boathouse. We all feared for the family of whooping cranes nearby, but Jeff assured us that these big birds could fend for themselves.

Two of my favorite sightings were of dolphins and a glass lizard. Dolphins swam in the Skimmer’s wake and were seen occasionally on our boat observations; and we found a glass lizard on the trail. Once, while out with Jeff in the Sam Houston State University boat, a curious dolphin checked us out, getting close and raising its eye out of the water so that it could see what the heck was going on because Jeff was rubbing his fingers along the side of the boat underwater making squealing/squeaking noises.

The dolphin that came in to check us out when Jeff made squeaking noises on the side of the boat; Photo Mike Brady

Glass lizards are interesting. They are legless lizards that resemble snakes . . . until one catches their blunt noses and cute smiles. They differ from snakes also because they have movable eyelids, external ear openings, and inflexible jaws. They are called glass lizards because they can shed their tails (which are more than half the lizard’s length) to foil predators. The tail can shatter into pieces that break off like glass. Each piece squirms and wiggles to attract the predator while the lizard stays motionless and eventually gets away. The glass lizard we found crossing the trail had already used this defensive technique as it was short and had no tapering tail. The new tail grows back slowly over a period of months to years I’ve learned.

When we first moved to Oklahoma, I found a glass lizard when mowing the lawn. I knew immediately that it was not a snake. This one, too, had already lost its tail, so when I picked it up, it had nothing more to lose. Looking back, I am glad. If, when I picked it up its tail had broken off and squirmed around in the grass, I would have squirmed around, too. 

Internet photo of a Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus),with an intact tail. 

Mike and Lindsay made one of the most talked about sightings. It was a fleeting look at best, but the two determined that what they had seen crossing the road behind Jeff’s truck was a cat. I thought Lindsay said that the animal was about the size of a chocolate lab (I kidded her about the chocolate part) but Mike says that it was about the color of a chocolate lab. Anyway, their best guess was that it was a Gulf Coast jaguarundi, a cat native to Mexico, that is a little smaller than a housecat, and with a small head and long body and tail. It is said to resemble more an otter than a cat. If they did see a jaguarundi, this is wonderful news! The last confirmed sighting of this subspecies in the U.S. was 30 years ago in April of 1986.

Note the long body and small head of the jaguarundi in these Internet pix. These animals can be chocolate lab colored also.