Wednesday was a lovely sunny day so we went down to the
coast. The wind was a little bracing at
Port Lavaca and we carried on to Aransas Wildlife Refuge. This area covers 115,000 acres along the Gulf
coast and is a stronghold for Whooping Cranes which fly down from Canada to
spend the winter months here. These rare
birds stand 5’ tall and now number approx. 500; a come-back from only 16 in
1941.
On the way there we stopped to watch a bird of prey trying to catch his dinner, look closely at the photo just in front of the hawk.
We saw several deer and some wild hog piglets (the mother was hiding in the bushes). We climbed to the top of an observation tower and looked down on the vultures that were coming into roost in the trees. We spotted a racoon hunting for something in the estuary (clams perhaps?).
We came across road kill (deer) being shared by the turkey vultures and 3 crested Caracaras. There was no fighting; they seemed to take it in turns quite amicably.
Out in the sea we saw a man fishing – he was wading up to the
top of his legs about a mile out from the shoreline, his boat was anchored
about 200 yards away. It seemed quite strange to see someone walking in the
water so far out – it was obviously very shallow in this region.
About 15 miles further up the road hunting is allowed. It is currently the duck and goose season. A hunting licence is $48 for the year and
there are “bag limits” which vary depending on the bird eg up to 3 Canada geese
but 20 Snow geese (sounds like a freezer full of goose drum-sticks).
The next day Paul did some maintenance on the RV whilst the
sun was shining and in the afternoon we took a walk along the Guadalupe River
in Victoria. In the evening we went to listen to a chap singing Country Music.
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