Beautiful Birds

So the first day we're here, I go out reconnoitering for good bird spots and hit upon one with these flamingo-type birds and I'm thinking, "Are we in Texas or Florida?.... Do flamingos come this far west?  No one told me we were going to see flamingos here?"  So couldn't wait to get back to this spot.

Then days passed, and some rain off and on, and doing some clean-up and fix-up on the RV after our tumultuous trip here, and finally got to the birding spot, and boom - no flamingos - nothing.  We trek around and I find out that these aren't flamingos but Roseate Spoonbills and we see them at various spots, but they're about 100 yards away - a LONG way away. I'm bummed.

Then we get a couple of days of rain, and I remember the night we drove into the park here.  It was raining cats and dogs, we weren't sure of the layout of the park, we were getting drenched and both of us were pretty cantankerous.  Then it cleared up beautifully the next day and that's when I saw those bright pink birds, so after the rainstorm, we trekked back out to the birding location and BOOM!!!  There they were.

 These are from the ibis family and considered frequent residents of the Gulf and Florida coast regions.  The pinker or redder birds are breeding.  Click on any of these photos to see them larger.  These really are gorgeous birds.

Because of their coloring, they were harvested for their feathers, but now because of protective laws, the populations have come back. 

 Using their bills, they work through the water by swishing their bills back and forth using smell to find shrimp and other small aquatic life.

For more fun, here's a great video of these birds in action on Walt's great camera.

As if this wasn't fun enough, we trekked over to another location (east of the Aransas Pass where the ships come into the Aransas area to get to Corpus Christi port), with birds of their own.  This seems to be where the Brown Pelicans hang out.

This one is the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce pelican who will sit there and allow you to get really close so you can take lots of photographs.  All the while looking at you as if to say, "Did I give you permission to take pictures of me/"  or "Are you getting my good side?"  Well, Walt got both so I'm sure he's happy!

And I think this is what I love most about Port Aransas is what this picture shows - the Chamber of Commerce Pelican - always available (albeit begrudgingly) for a photo or two, a huge tanker coming into the Aransas Pass into the deepest port in the Gulf of Mexico (Corpus Christi) and just below the surface of the water, being a little shy of the camera is a porpoise who love to play and race the boats in and out of the pass.  Walt shot this a little ahead of the porpoise making its appearance! 

But no matter, because we caught the porpoises earlier during the day at a different location of the pass.  Look just ahead of the tug boat pulling that LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) tanker out of the pass and into the Gulf of Mexico headed to Antwerp, Rotterdam - providing fuel for the world while nature is running amok all around them.  Who says commerce and nature can't exist together?!