Urban Observation

The following day, our last, my team went with Lindsay to Goose Island State Park, an urban site near Lamar where a private citizen had a corn feeder. The feeder attracted some whoopers, as well as sandhill cranes and roseate spoonbills. (Lindsay compared this to the cranes eating candy from a vending machine.) Lindsay had never seen more than two whoopers at this urban corn-feeder site before, so when we arrived and there were 7 whoopers, we had our work cut out for us. Lindsay geared up to observe a family of three. Sue and I geared up with Deb as timer to observe one crane each. That left two unobserved cranes that we thought we’d observe after the first observations. The trouble was, the birds were down in a wetlands. Shortly after Sue and I began our 20 minute observation both cranes disappeared behind tall grass. We quickly moved our vantage point, recording No Data (ND) every 15 seconds until we could see them well again. But, our two cranes again disappeared behind the grasses. This time when we could see them again, we were unsure of which crane was whose, or even whether they were the same two. Thus Sue’s and my observations were scrapped. We would have begun again and also observed the two other cranes, but we had no sheets on which to record our data.

Internet photo of three Whooping Cranes flying in to the corn feeder. Many Sandhill Cranes have already gathered. 

Disappointed, we went to a picnic area near a large old live oak called “Big Tree” and ate our lunch.  You can’t see all of the supports in the photo below of Big Tree, but many of its branches were held up with metal props or wired up. I love live oaks and am glad to know that there is a Live Oak Society. It was founded in 1934 under the auspices of the Louisiana Garden Club Federation, Inc. According to Wikipedia, by 2013, more than 7,000 live oaks, including Big Tree, had been registered at the Society.There are some wonderful live oaks on the campus of Louisiana University and in Texas hill country, also. Many of the live oaks in Aransas NWR were twisted and shaped by the wind.

"Big Tree"

Terri Tipping's photo of the live oaks before the Visitor's Center at sunrise

My photo--and my shadow--of the same trees from the sunrise side

Live oak that looked like a bonsai to me

After our picnic lunch, and lacking more data sheets, we returned to the boathouse field site . . . or tried to. The cranes were too close, so once again we could not enter the area, nor could the boat crew get back. This time, however, the boat crew were prepared for a long haul on the water and had taken their lunches and drinks with them. They were pinned down once again when a crane flew in and landed where they were working, forcing them to lie in the mucky saltmarsh again for a period . . . but they managed to complete the observations and assessments.


Left: The live oaks along the drive to the ANWR Visitor's Center

Jean, Deb, and Mary in the shade of the live oaks walking
to the ANWR Visitor's Center the following day 

I was trying to find a good photo that showed the relative size of the Whooping Crane (up to 60") and the Sandhill Crane (up to 40"). This is as close as I came. Note the much larger body of the whooper.

Internet photo of  Roseate Spoonbills

We had finished our observations and assessments, so what was Lindsay to do with her van load of volunteers? She decided to treat us to a drive around the car loop, where we birded and read the interpretative signs. Then we checked to see if the cranes had moved off of the marsh near the boathouse. Lindsay had texted Jeff not to return because of the nearness of the cranes. The cranes had not moved off, so we walked a couple of the Refuge trails. Near one of the trails was the hog couple and their 10 piglets. The boar put up his back when I called to it, and the family moved off at a trot, the piglets a bouncing line behind in the tall grass. Farther down this trail, we spotted a great blue heron and three Little Blue Herons on a marsh island—our first sighting of little blues. We then took a short trail to Jones Lake and found it full of Blue- and Green-winged Teal, alligators, and a Least and Pied-billed Grebe or two. The edge of the lake had been rooted up by the hogs for nearly its circumference.

Finally the boat team was able to get back and we all gathered at the volunteer building for our last evening meal together—fajita, spaghetti, hamburger, Cajun boil, shrimp leftovers with a beer or drink of our choice. Mary had some hard root beer that I sampled. It was delicious and I gulped it down like a soda—and then felt the effects of its 6.5% alcohol content. Things got a little fuzzy for awhile.