Whooping Crane Earthwatch 2016: 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

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.