Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

What a marvelous day.  We went early and stayed late at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  I’ll just have to say that this was the best thing we have seen in a long time.  We started at the Visitor Center with the film and a tour around the museum.  Then, in the truck we traveled the 16 mile loop road stopping at most of the walking trails to catch wildlife up close and personal.  There were very few people there today so we were able to stroll or roll along at a very leisurely pace.

The jewels of this refuge are the endangered whooping cranes that make Aransas their winter home.  The largest flock in North America (about 200 birds) migrates through here each year.  We saw 2 of these magnificent birds, but only with the aid of a telescope from the top of the 40-foot observation tower.  We never saw any close enough for a picture.  We saw several sandhill cranes, but they were also too far away for a good picture.  We could at least see them without a telescope.

The other big deal for us was the armadillo.  We saw several, and they seemed not to mind people.  Then there was that huge alligator sunning himself, thankfully on the bank across the water from where we were walking on the trail.  Perhaps the greatest surprise was seeing a wild boar.  We had no idea we would see them during the daylight hours.

We are not birders, so we really don’t know what all we saw.  If they were close enough and large enough, I made a picture.  There was a large number of birds high above which I wonder if were whooping cranes.  They were large birds, they were while with black wings, and they had some red on their heads.  However, they seemed to be circling high above the earth and the black on their wings was much more prominent than what I would have expected.

We had a wonderful day amongst the wonders of the creation.