In Corpus Christi, we joined a tour group from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for five days of wildlife viewing along the Gulf coast and Rio Grande in Texas. The tour culminated at the Frio Bat Cave near Uvalde, Texas, where we watched the total solar eclipse then stayed to see the bats emerge at dusk - more on that in a later post.
4 April 2024
The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge is about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi, TX, along the Gulf. It is notable as the winter home of the endangered whooping crane. We had a morning excursion on the Skimmer to see birds from the water. In the afternoon, we toured the refuge on land.
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| Sunrise and a common loon. |
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| Lots of birds hanging out on an oyster reef. |
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| Oyster boats bringing in the day’s haul. |
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| The observation tower (probably about 40 ft tall) was the longest ADA-compliant ramp I’ve ever seen. |
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| View from the observation tower. |
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| Laughing gull. |
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| Whooping crane. A few cranes had not yet left to migrate up to their summer breeding grounds along the Wood River in northern Alberta. |
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| Great-tailed grackles. We saw these everywhere on our five days of travel. |
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| Common loon. |
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| White-tailed hawk. |
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| Roseate spoonbills - perhaps the most spectacular bird we saw. |
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| Osprey, with a fish. |
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| Great blue heron. |
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| White ibis migrating. |
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| Brown pelicans. |
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| Great egret. |
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| Scissor-tailed flycatcher. |
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| A small island had a large rookery. The great blue herons were the most noticeable, but many species of birds were nesting on the island. |
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| Another part of the rookery. |
It wasn’t only birds.
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| Red admiral butterflies were common (and easy to photograph!). |
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| Two ‘gators. |
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| A closer look at one alligator. |
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| The tiny ribbon snake was difficult to see. |
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| Two gars lurking in the water. |
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