So far Texas has been very rewarding from the scenery to the birding. We did see whooping cranes 2 days in a row, once from land and the other from a boat. With the boat ride we were able to get much closer and could see their behavior better. They are amazing birds and are almost 5 feet tall. Apparently there were only 15 wild birds left in the world 30 years ago. Now the flock that winters in Aransas, Tx is about 200 strong and is the only migrating flock in the world.

We are currently camped at Padre Island National Seashore. Lovely barren landscape of praire and dunes. The Gulf has been rough and we listen to the surf through the night. We glance at it over breakfast. The surf is bringing in sargasso weed and the gulls and sanpipers love it. God has blessed the sanderling clan and they have been fruitful, but even piping plovers are regular here. The grand white-tailed hawks make life dangerous for rodents and reptiles in the grassland.

Today we drove out of the park to visit the Port Aransas birding center which is a boardwalk through lagoons at the wastewater treatment plant. We found our first long-billed dowitcher and cinnamon teal of the trip there. We then headed across the bay into Corpus Christi in search of web access. We chanced the library at Bucher Park and arrived at 1:30 p.m. It opened at 2:00 p.m. Anne suggested a nap, but Chuck wanted to check out the park. We had dipped here on Tuesday in search of a clay colored robin. No work of it since, and mid afternoon is not a great time for birding. We saw little more than a couple of Inca doves when we saw two birders on the opposite site of the little brook scanning up an embankment. After a few minutes we called across and the young many said "clay colored robin." We quicklyn found a stream crossing and walked up behind them to witness for the first time this handsome but subdued olive brown thrush with an amber belly. We "ticked" off this bird which seems to be showing up in several places this winter but is by no means a certain find.

Tomorrow is to be a quiet day, and on Tuesday we move south to Port Isabel to hopefully be saturated by the special birds of extreme south Texas. It has been fun to approach slowly and savor one or two life birds a day. The weather continues excellent (the locals would like more rain) and all RV systems have remained functional.

Best to all our blog visitors.