Aransas NWR

We both slept in this morning. DR shot some silhouettes of the gulls and pelicans flying along the beach. It was almost noon before we arrived at the refuge. We had lunch and did the 15 mile auto tour loop. We saw a flock of around twenty five birds off in the distance. We were pretty sure they were whooping cranes as they were large, white and had black tips on their wings. It looked like they were gaining altitude in the thermals for a glide off to somewhere. Other than that we didn’t see much that first loop. So we parked near the observation tower until the sun was lower in the sky around 4 pm.

Laura took a two hour nap while we waited. The drugs are helping with her nausea, but the Bell’s palsy and associated vertigo are pretty much the same as yesterday. She is still struggling to keep her eye moist so as not to allow damage to her cornea.

We did another quick loop before sunset then took our time along the coast where we found a bunch of white tail deer, as usual, and spotted a whooping crane vigorously working the shallows. It was well beyond our big lens’ useful range, but we snapped a couple shots as they could easily be the best we get of these elusive birds.

A beautiful sunset saw us off to camp and the full moon reflecting beautifully off the water greeted us back to Magnolia Beach. It’s a little colder this evening and the wind is still blowing 10 to 15 ish.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the refuge, but probably not real early as we are camping a good 40 minutes away.

DR & Laura