In the early afternoon (1:40 - 2:20 PM) today (Wednesday, 02/03/16) my
wife, Birgit, and I observed and I photographed the continuing Whooping
Crane in a flooded pasture (with several remaining pools) east of Ricardo
on the north side of FM -1118 about 0.6 mi. east of Road 1050. It was in
the presence of numerous Sandhill Cranes, which were in large numbers and
spread widely in the pasture. Although the Whooping Crane was in the
presence of Sandhills, it did not appear to engage in social interactions
with them, but busied itself with much preening and, frequently, voracious
feeding, quite often walking about at a good clip. Consequently,, getting
good photos of it with its head up required some patience, a circumstance
made the more difficult by its frequent appearance behind branching
vegetation that, fortunately, was not dense. At such times, driving a bit
to another viewing angle often provided better visibility. The special
effort to get useful and interesting photos of the Whooping Crane was, glad
to say, quite successful. Also gratifying were numrous much closer photos
of Sandhill Cranes, some of which were immediately adjacent to the fence
beside the road.
If you go, please be careful because this is a reasonably busy two-lane
road, and stopping in the middle of a lane to view and/or photograph the
cranes could be disastrous. Other drivers may have no idea that anyone
would be stopped in the middle of a lane of a country road such as
this--and, besides, nowadays some drivers are very distracted by electronic
communications devices.
After we left the Whooping Crane's area, we birded until near sunset in a
wide range of locales in southeast Kleberg County near or on the Cayo del
Grullo (i.e., northwestern branch of Baffin Bay), and these sites were
highly rewarding with many areas yielding Sandhill Cranes and several
sites, additionally, Snow and/or Greater White-fronted Geese. At one point
the view south from 2250E yielded views of long on-ground lines of Snow
Geese, plus some Greater White-fronted, several hundreds of geese being
visible in that instance. Numerous times the lovely blue sky was graced by
substantial flocks of cranes and/or geese. The mouth of Arana Creek, which
is immediately south of the entrance of Kaufer-Hubert Memorial Park, was
teeming with shorebirds, including substanial numbers of both dowitcher
species plus three ringed-plover species, namely, Killdeer (numerous),
Piping Plover (8), and Snowy Plover (1). as well as both Lesser and Greater
Yellowlegs (1 each), Black-necked Stilt (several), and Least Sandpiper
(numerous). Substantial numbers of both White and Brown Pelicans also
graced the scene. We had trouble pulling ourselves away from this lovely
rural area that today was teeming with birds on land and, often, in the
air. This is an area that today provided, as it so often has, relaxed
birding, abundant birds, in a lovely rural setting that contains a variety
of habitats. We were unable, due to time, to visit all the sites in the
area that we often visit, but we certainly plan to be back soon.
Wishing everyone the best of birding -- Rex Stanford (Weslaco).
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