Tuesday, February 7th, 2006 - Boat Tour to see the Whooping Cranes in Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Taking one last shot at seeing whooping cranes at the wildlife refuge, we drove up to Port Aransas and embarked on the "Wharf Cat", a medium sized catamaran that ferried us along the Intracoastal Waterway over to the refuge. The trip over was interesting as we saw a lot of barge traffic on the waterway plus various types of fishermen trying their luck. The oystermen were fishing by dragging big buckets along the bottom of the channel, and crabber fishermen were checking out their crab traps. It appeared to be a very productive fishery and the water was clean enough that the fish were certifiably safe to eat, which was reassuring.

The birds also benefited from this bounty, of course. The total amount of waterfowl in the area is simply fantastic and we saw large flocks of pelicans, gulls, cormorants, terns, and god knows what else. Most of the flocks were gathered on shoals or tiny islands in the bay. Some birds also perched on the channel markers or the gas wellheads and other structures in the bay, and still others wheeled around in the air, presumably hunting. Occasionally one of them would dive straight down into the water after their prey and make a huge splash in the process, which was pretty spectacular.

Once in the refuge we saw a lot more of the wading type of birds in the shallow bays, mostly on the west side of the channel. At first we saw mainly sand hill cranes like the ones we had seen on our drive through the wildlife refuge. But at last we caught sight of the whooping cranes we had searched for in vain previously, reassuring us that we hadn't spent our $30 in vain. Whenever our captain saw a pair or family of whooping cranes, he would ram the boat up against the shoreline , and it was amazing how close to the shore he could come with the bow of the catamaran; I estimated less than a yard distance between our bow and the mud bank when he ran us up like that.

At one point we got particularly close to a family of two adults whooping cranes and a youngster. When we first arrived the whole family was at the edge of the water. Then first the daddy and then the mommy crane starting walking inland but the kid, not taking the hint, stayed on the shoreline. Soon the adults started honking at the youngster, apparently telling him to leave the shoreline and follow them inland. After much honking back and forth, the kid finally walked over to catch up with the parents, at which point they all flew a short distance inland. The whole process reminded me for all the world of a recalcitrant human teenager being shepherded along by his parents and complaining every step of the way. That "conversation" gave us a chance to hear that very distinctive honking that whooping cranes make, and it was funny to boot.

Having achieved our primary goal, we could just relax up in the bow of the catamaran and enjoy the sunshine and cool breezes on our way back to Port Aransas. Along the way the bottle nosed dolphins frolicked in our wake or off to one side, and it was fun to watch them. We finally came into port around 3:20 p.m.

Back in town, we drove two blocks down the street to have another meal at the Whattaburger. I was having the grilled chicken breast sandwich as I figured it was the lowest fat thing on the menu. We found that the size of the drink and the amount of French Fries when we ordered a "combo" were so large at Whattaburger that we could be perfectly satisfied when just one of us had the combo and the other one had just a sandwich. That was good for me in particular because the fries were so good that if I had an order all for myself I just couldn't stop until I had finished them all (I basically have zero willpower!). However, if Monika had the combo and technically the fries were hers, then I had to behave myself and split the fries with her. Unless, of course she was going to "throw them away" in which case all bets were off!

As we drove back through town after our meal we stopped off in a discount swimsuit shop. Monika wanted to shop for a swimsuit and the place we found fairly large shop that carried nothing but swimsuits. They claimed 10,000 swimsuits in stock, and I wasn't at all certain that was right although a lot of the bikinis didn't take up much space at all. Still, we hoped that the stock would be extensive enough for Monika to find a two piece suit that would both fit well and look nice, and in the end she did find one that satisfied us both. As we drove back into the national seashore, we decided to finally walk the 3/4-mile nature trail that starts right by the entrance station. The trail led us on a loop through the native grasslands, and they were surprisingly fertile for having a base of nothing but sand underneath. In fact, "breakout" sand dunes apparently ran across the island from east to west, drifted by the prevailing winds, unless they were arrested by acquiring a covering of vegetation. Most of the plants were dormant, of course, but one indigo plant was blooming and a couple of the others were at least green.

Back at the campsite the great blue heron that had greeted us on our first day was again sitting in the dunes watching us as we packed the bed of the pickup in the time remaining before dusk.

We then retreated into the trailer for dinner and an evening of working on the computers and reading. Although the solar cells had given the battery a tiny bit of charge during the day, the check light for the trailer battery was once again on "empty". So I half expected I would run into the same low charge warning during the night and, sure enough, around 11 p.m. I was awakened once again by the shrill piping of the alarm. That necessitated yet another run outside in my pajamas to disconnect the battery but thank goodness that it was not all that cold, somewhere in the 50s I would guess. It was also a lot easier having planned ahead for the problem before I went to sleep--no extensive diagnosis and problem solving while 3/4 asleep was required--so at least that night I could simply pull off the battery terminals and run back inside to get right back to sleep.