Whooping Cranes in Rockport

We have spent some time trying to see Whooping Cranes while here in Rockport and finally found 5 of them in the Goose Island area.  There is a large field with a pond on it that they come to during the day to feed and then return to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge in the evenings.  We bought a large telephoto lens that we could afford (LOL - the good ones are $5,000+) so the photos aren’t as crisp as we would like, but we were able to get some fun pictures of them.  These birds are endangered, and at one time many years ago numbered 15,000-20,000, but were down to 15 birds in 1941.  They are now up to over 600 and that’s not a lot.  They breed in far northern Canada and migrate to Rockport in the winter, a trip of about 2400 miles.  There is an extremely interesting article about them at this site - http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/birds/whooping-crane.aspx- and I strongly encourage you to read it.  A second small group of whoopers has been developed in Florida and, in trying to teach them to migrate, are led by a plane to a breeding place in Wisconsin each year.  Like I said, read the article.  It’s very interesting.

These birds are majestic.  They are about 5’ tall with a wing span of over 7’ and they put on a show for us.  They mate for life and can have 1-2 babies, but typically only one makes it.  So when we see them in Rockport we can see a family – Dad, Mom, and child. 

Life at 65!

Spoonbill John photographed

It’s been a while since my last posting.  We’ve obviously settled into life in Rockport and I find myself busy with lots of things.  The big event this week was my 65^th birthday – yep, I’m now on Medicare and hope it lasts.  I’ve been attending the weekly activity meetings and, as usual, finding it hard to keep quiet.  My mind is constantly ticking trying to come up with resolutions to problems the groups encounters and wham, up goes my hand!  I’ve been approached numerous times to run for Chair/President of the group but I’ve been very good at saying NO.  In the meantime, John and I did agree to oversee the setting up of tables and chairs for various events.  Although there are several, I think once we’ve done a few, we will find this a great way to serve and hopefully keep the stress level down.  The first event was a bit bumpy as it was a learning experience and we caught some flack but that’s okay.  Round two is Saturday and I’m feeling good that it will go smoothly.  What concerns me the most is setting up for Christmas dinner next year.  They had well over 100 people this year and the folks must go through a food line in a room that was packed. 

One of the things that I have found fantastic is that before any food related event, the group prays.  How awesome is that.  Before we start the activity meeting we pledge to the American flag!  This group is very God and country oriented. 

Pelicans waiting for food at a cleaning station

From the time John retired he assured me that I didn’t need to worry about him finding something to keep himself busy but that’s hard for me to do.  He can entertain himself all day on a computer and in front of the TV.  He eventually went and visited with the man that heads up the group that gets together and carves wood but just couldn’t seem to get excited about that.  Then he gave a lot of thought to doing something with photography and although that excites him, he didn’t want to just take pictures and not do anything with them.  This past month he finally decided to try working with stained glass again.  This is something he dabbled in before I knew him and what he wants to learn to make is stained glass figures with metal windchimes. So, the packages started arriving after he ordered all the items he needed online and then we made a trip to Hobby Lobby to select stained glass and to Lowes to get tension shower rods to make the chimes with.  He has done a lot of research on the chimes and is now getting started.  I’m excited for him. 

The photography hasn’t gone by the wayside though.  We both love to take pictures to share on Facebook and currently we are interested in getting pics of all the beautiful large birds here in the Rockport area.  Of course, our biggest desire is to find and photograph the ‘whoopers’ (Whooping Cranes).  We’ve been given a lot of info on where to find them during the day so it means a few trips to that location and just waiting them out.  We did finally order a very large telephoto lens that requires a tripod to hold it steady since it’s so long hoping that will help us when trying to photograph wildlife from long distances.  We’re still working on how to use the lens so I’m thankful John has had lots of classes in photography.

I’ve also been helping a neighbor learn to blog and organize photos on her computer, which is something I really enjoy doing.  She and I seem to have clicked as friends and it turns out that she doesn’t live far from my hometown in Minnesota.  We did have to enlist some help from John as she works on a Mac, which I have no experience with, so we could figure out how to organize her photos.  The file management system on a Mac is definitely different from a PC.  She seemed very pleased with her computer lessons.

Stock photo of whoopers

This week we finally made a day trip to north Houston to visit with my sister and her husband.  They are always so gracious about allowing us to bring our fur babies with us who are usually much better behaved than many children.  While we visited, they had a blast running through the house for a bit.  Bailey loves to run fast and doesn’t bet to do it very often since they both must be on leashes every place we go.  When I take her to a dog park she just smells and smells and smells but no running.  At least she will run when we are at our place at Cedar Blue.  We also played cards and then had a nice dinner out before heading back to Rockport. 

I hope to be able to post some pics of whoopers that we take soon so more to come.

We're Into the New Year - 2017

Spoonbills

The New Year has come and gone and we are started into 2017 and looking ahead to a new president soon and lots of potential changes in our country.

  I find myself excited but also wondering how things are really going to work out.  Both of us are pleased that we have finally made it to full retirement and able to enjoy it and with our faith in the Lord, neither of us are going to worry about what may or may not happen.  We plan to live each day at a time with our eyes on the Lord, enjoy all that He has created for us and remain sensitive to His direction.

Little boy petting the girls

As I sit here writing this I’m watching small airplanes fly over.  This park is right next to a county airport and if it wasn’t for the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, it would be fairly quiet as only small planes can land here.  BUT the NAS does touch and goes in small planes for hours on a regular basis here so lots of airplane noise.  I’ve heard these are pilots that are training to land on aircraft carriers.  You get used to it though and it stops before dark.  Sometimes they are so low you can see the pilots!

We have joined in on several activities in the park including bingo, live music they bring in, dinners, exercise, and Bible study.  I’m hoping to get started on beginning line dancing.  We’ve also been roped into overseeing the setup of tables and chairs for major events.  They have a sock hop coming up and they are going to play the not so newlywed game for Valentine’s Day.  The Bible study is mostly women and a great group.  It’s made up of numerous denominations and wonderful that we can all study God’s word together.

Last week we went to the movies.  Rockport has a small theater with 4 screens and on Tuesday nights the popcorn is free if you bring your own bowl.  We just brought a small popcorn bag with us not knowing what others bring in.  I didn’t want to stand out walking in with a large red plastic bowl and be the only one.  That would have been awkward.  Well as soon as we got out of the car I saw several others with multiple large bowls in their hands.  Almost went home to get my large red plastic bowl.  We enjoyed the movie Sing and the small theater feel.  It just felt safe and like a family place. 

Today we drove to Goose Island State Park and it’s really nice.  It sits right on Aransas Bay and you can actually book sites right at the water’s edge.  Yep, we book five nights for next year leading into our stay back at Wilderness Oaks.  They have this enormous live oak tree there that is said to be over 1,000 years old.  It’s quite a sight.  They have it fenced off and have put bracing under some of the limbs to give it stability.