Day 12: January 27, Mathis to Alvin, TX

Although we were up late last night (neither of us were sleepy after a long day with nothing but driving), we were still up fairly early.  We meandered through small roads towards the Gulf Coast.  We encountered old and new Texas industries: agriculture (corn and cotton fields) and industry (oil wells and wind turbines).

Denise was very impressed by the Corpus Christi "skyline" -- that is some of the industrial stuff nearby.

Because we had a 1 pm departure to look at the Whooping Cranes (thanks to Joan Hauser for her suggestion to look for them), we had some time to kill in Rockport/Fullerton.  We walked around the Fullerton estate -- it was finally warm enough Catherine was comfortable in just a sweatshirt.  There were even bugs around, meaning there must be both water and warm temperatures.

After looking around Rockport including some of their more exclusive neighborhoods, we stopped at Walmart for some last groceries.  This Walmart's parking lot is great for out of state license plates -- all the snow birds shop here.  We relaxed waiting for the tour to start, watching Mockingbirds, Great-Tailed Grackles (distinguished from Boat-Tailed Grackles by eye color) and Starlings.  Those are shrimping/oystering boats in the background.

The boat tour was worth every penny.  The naturalist/guide could spot a bird a mile off, describe it's location and identify it.  He even described the identifying characteristics.  It was perfect!  The weather was great -- nearly 70 and no wind (the water was so flat the crew said anyone who got seasick would be summarily thrown off the boat).  The Bass family who owns a barrier island that is 25 miles long and uses it to farm cattle and hunt happened to be burning some of their fields, so there was distant smoke, but not enough to bother anyone.  Did you read that?  They own 25 miles of barrier island!

 If you aren't a birder, skip the next paragraph.

We saw Dunlins, Oyster Catchers, Royal Terns, Caspian Terns, White Pelicans, Brown Pelicans, Pintails, Long Billed Curlews, Buffleheads, Great Blue Herons, Great Egrets, every Lesser Scaup in the entire world, Little White Egrets, White Ibises, Reddish Egrets, Long-Tail Ducks (fairly rare in TX), Ruddy Ducks, Turkey Vultures (the OK State bird according to the Texas tour guide), Crested Caracaras (only 2 and far away), Willets, Ruddy Turnstones, Tricolored Herons, Red Tailed Hawks, Long and Short Billed Dowitchers, Avocets, Itty Bitty Sandpipers (we noticed these, not the guide), Little Blue Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Double Crested and Neotropic Cormorants (distinguished by size), Northern Harriers, and a couple of Common Loons.  Yes, Catherine was taking notes and, no, please don't ask her to identify all of these without Sibley's Guide to Birds, birds that are posing correctly and, as necessary, several similar species side by side for comparison.

In addition to the little stuff, we saw what we came for: Whooping Cranes.  We even saw one pair that had successfully raised both chicks -- normally avian siblicide occurs.  One group with Mom, Dad and the young one was cooperative and crabbed for the boat for nearly 15 minutes.  The baby would wait until a parent pulled up a crab and pulled some legs off, so s/he could eat without doing any work.  Sounds just like a kid, doesn't it?  This group even flew off at the end -- they are stunning when they fly!

For Denise, the highlight of the trip was seeing Roseate Spoonbills working the mud near the Whooping Cranes.  That group of cranes consisted of 4 subadults that would do practice mating dances periodically.

Catherine's highlight was seeing a Peregrine Falcon.

Since we were in the Intercoastal Waterway, saw a bigger boat carrying benzene (and leaking a bit from the smell).  This area once was a major port for the cattle trade.  Because the cows couldn't be driven to the stockyards in West Texas (because they would die along the way), they were driven here, and their hides and tallow shipped north.  The meat rotted because they couldn't store it.

We also saw a bunch of the off shore natural gas wells.

Other than humans, the only mammals were Bottlenose Dolphins playing in the wake.  Not terribly rare, but still fun to watch.

At 4 we hit the car and headed north towards Alvin, TX.  This part of Texas seems familiar -- kind of a cross between eastern NC and central FL.  Lots and lots of cows and lots of BIG fields with black dirt.  There were a couple of substantial chemical plants to break up the monotony and we even run into towns frequently enough we don't have to worry about having at least 130 miles of gas in the tank (that was the longest "No Services for" sign we saw although Catherine isn't sure they bother to put those up in a lot of places).

Tomorrow we'll see Joan Hauser's hometown of Hackberry, LA and then head toward Natchez Trace.