30. December 2008 by Capt. Tommy.

Greetings to all and happy new year!

My internet has been down for a week and we have been birding our butts off. Yesterday we had the Christmas Bird Count crew on board and we scraped up 91 species unofficially.

Speaking of scraping, these poor whoopers  are really working hard for their food. The drought has our crab crop way down. We are however seeing some crabs being eaten and getting good looks at cranes on each trip. The whoopers are moving alot and going into each others territories.

The red-breasted mergansers and gadwalls have finally arrived en-mass which is good to see, I had seen only one or two mergansers all year and no gadwalls before yesterday. I guess the cold front that arrived sunday evening finnaly brought them in.

We are consistantly picking up semi-palmated and piping plovers which is always fun and the white great blue heron has been very consistant in Carlos Bay. He has been pretty far out there some days but you can get a pretty good look with the Nikon spotting scopes.

Which reminds me! Nikon just sent me their new Monacrch X Binos. All I can say is WOW!  This product is incredible! They are 8.5 X 45 and they are super bright and very clear and they will sell between $600 and $700 when they come out in February. They are sure to be a winner for Nikon and Rockport Adventures.

Y’all come go birding with us. We have great birds, great food, and great deals at the local hotels. Come on down, warm up, and have some FUN!

Good birding!

Capt Tommy

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5. December 2008 by Capt. Tommy.

Thursday mornings trip got moved back to 1PM due to high winds in the morning. I was very happy to see that the National Weather Service’s Hourly Weather Graph was forecasting diminishing winds into the afternoon and we had the option to move our 11 passengers back.

We were treated to a great view of a family of Cranes on the east side of the channel which gave our photographers good light from the afternoon sun. The male had a maroon tag with silver band on the top. Tom Stehn had asked me to report any bands other than the green banded female we usullay see so I gve him a call from the cell and he was happy that I did as he has not seen that bird for the last 2 winters. Tom said that they had been located on the nesting grounds in Canada but not here in Aransas.  The bird was however not to far from his last known whereabouts at Spalding Lake about 2 miles away. Food has been scarce in the marsh and the whoopers are moving around alot.

The highlight for me was the whimbrel at Cape Carlos Dugout on the way back south. There has been one whimbrel there off and on for the past 3 years and I was starting to wonder if he would be back. He gave us a great look just 20 yards away.

We have also been seing a white great blue heron off and on near sundown bay. This bird is fairly rare along the Texas coast. He is a bit skiddish and doesnt stay long but seems to be staying in the area. Lots of fun to see anyway. The attached photo is by Mike Sloat.

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