7. November 2010 by Capt. Tommy.

All is right with the world! We made our first whooper trip of the year yesterday and saw almost 30 birds on our usual route. The weather was spectacular as well. Our first stop in Dunham Bay produced 9 birds with 2 different pair and a sub-adult cohort of 5 birds.

We picked up the usual Egrets, Herons and Ibis along with Roseate Spoonbills and good numbers of shorebirds. Raptors included both Red-tailed and white-tailed hawks, Crested Cara Cara, and a Merlin. Ducks that crossed our field of view were Pintails, Widgeon, Gadwall, Mottled, and Ruddy.

Ok the birds are here, where are YOU!  I look forward to seeing you all this winter.

Good birds to you-

Captain Tommy

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26. October 2010 by Capt. Tommy.

Greetings!

It is Fall and all of our winter visitors are starting to arrive!  We saw one of the first 2 Whooping Cranes  last Friday on a kayak trip up to San Antonio Bay. The White Pelicans are coming in in very large groups that can be seen “kettling” in the thermals. Last weekend we saw large flights of duck battling the strong SE wind flying low very close to the water.  The ospreys are here in large numbers as well. There are 3 in Little Bay alone!

We are doing private trips on the skiff now and will start our season officially the second weekend in November. So come on down and let’s go birding!

www.RockportAdventures.com

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24. November 2009 by Capt. Tommy.

Our season officially opened on the 14th of November and we had great looks at the cranes. We had high tides all week which while covering up some of our hot spots enabled us to get into the shallow waters of Sundown Bay and get really good looks at the few cranes in the area. The migration was just a bit off from previous years with only 91 birds counted from the airplane on Thursday the 19th.

This weekend was outstanding after the front on Friday with a lot more Whoopers and other new arrivals. We picked up American Bitterns on both Saturday and Sunday, The Common Loons have arrived en mass, we saw three flying on Saturday which is always a treat. They are so big and so fast! White-tailed Hawks have also been pretty reliable for a change.

Other species seen:

Snow Goose
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
White-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
Peregrine Falcon
Sandhill Crane
Whooping Crane
Black-bellied Plover
Snowy Plover
American Oystercatcher
American Avocet
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Dunlin
Short-billed/Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster’s Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Horned Lark
Sedge Wren
Seaside Sparrow

Special thanks to Richard Gibbons!

Happy Birding!

Capt Tommy

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10. November 2009 by Capt. Tommy.

We made a trip to the refuge this morning and picked up 19 Whoopers. Unfortunately none were close but it is always a thrill to get the first birds of the season. We saw one juvenile and its plumage was beautiful!

I really love this time of year because the always seems to be a lot of action. As the cranes arrive they all have to work out their territories and that is always exciting. Today the male of a territorial pair on Dunham Bay chased a cohort of 3 sub-adults around for about 20 minutes until they finally had enough and went elsewhere.

The season officially starts this Saturday the 14th of November so come on and join us.

The highlights of the day were: Whoopers, Snowy Plovers, White-tailed Hawks, and a lesser Black backed gull.

Happy Birding!

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29. January 2009 by Capt. Tommy.

We have had some very exciting birding over the last few weeks. While sighting only a couple of “rare” birds(white GBH and a lesser black-backed gull) we have seen our usual suspects doing cool things. Early this week we were drifting down on a whooper that was feeding close to shore when a Merlin flew in right at us and landed 10 feet away from the boat in a black mangrove bush. It stayed only 30 seconds or so when it realized what was going on and flew abot 30 yards down to the next mangrove. Everyone on the boat was able to get a great look at this small raptor.

Our tides were very low last weekend and we were unable to make our usual route through the back bays and I had just turned the Skimmer south for the return to Fulton Harbor when I looked up and spied a mature White-tailed Hawk kiting  about 100 feet high 30 yards away. I stopped the boat and watched the bird through the incredible new Nikon Monarch X  8.5X45 binos when he folded his wings and dove to about 30 feet and stopped again. It was a beautiful display of flight and I heard the crowed gasp. About 30 secnds later he made his final attack on his prey behind the cane about the same time his mate arrived and kited above him. I am sure some clients got great photos of these birds and will hopefully share them with us.

We did finally get a look at an Aplomado Falcon on the mainland last week. These birds were re-introduced on Matagorda Island some years back where we see them fairly regularly but I have never seen one along our Intra-coastal water way route until now.

The whoopers are still having a tough time finding blue crabs but we are getting great looks as they have been feeding on razor clams along the edge of the Intra-coastal Water Way. We have also been seeing the Lobstick “Scarbaby” in his territory along the edge of Sundown Bay. This bird was bitten by a snake as a juvinile and we indentify him by the long scar on the back of his neck.

The birding is great and the seafood is delicious and the weather is even better so come on down and see us!

Good birding!

Capt. Tommy

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9. January 2009 by Capt. Tommy.

It happened again on Tuesday! I saw something I have never seen. Whooper are very territorial and typically a pair with a juvenile will not tolerate other adult birds  around the family. When we saw three birds in the distance when we entered the refuge I began my bit about sub adults and how when you see more than two adults hanging out they were sure to be sub adults. As we got closer I noticed the juvenile with the group and much to my surprise they were a family and a sub adult bird prowling the shoreline. We watch awhile and the male bird with a red and silver band found a dead fish on the beach.

He picked at the fish for a bit when the sub adult came over to see if he could get in on the action. The banded bird would drop the fish and rush him and the sub adult  would back off. This went on a few times and the banded bird lost interest in the fish and moved away so the sub adult ran over and picked up the fish. Well that got the banded bird all worked up and he started chasing the fish grabber. When the banded bird would ease up the sub adult would start to eat the fish and the banded bird would rush him again. They moved about a hundred yards down the beach while the whooper mom and chick looked on. Finally the sub adult gave up and so did the banded bird and they both moved back toward the family and all four birds worked their way down the beach. VERY STRANGE!

We are still getting great looks at the white Great Blue Heron in Carlos Bay and picking up 40 to 50 species on each trip. Our weather finally broke and we have had a couple of glorious days.

Good birding!

Capt Tommy

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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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29. November 2008 by Capt. Tommy.

Birding has been great all week. We had four no-shows Thanksgiving morning leaving us with  only six passengers but we have been booked for the rest of the weekend so we had to go. The small crew was treated to an outstanding morning of birding with the entire line up of marsh feeding species in one spot! It is like the photo on the Birding page of our website  with white and brown pelicans, Roseate Spoonbills, avocets, mottled ducks, hooded mergansers, greater and lesser yellowlegs, great tailed grackles, willits, white ibis, reddish egrets, great egrets, snowy egrets, Little blue herons, tri-colored herons, great blue herons, and more ALL IN ONE LAKE! Whew!

We have also had some great fly-bys from the whoopers. We are getting great looks at lots of pairs. The weather has been awesome as well, which is typical for Febuary and December.

The highlight from Friday’s trips was the one dolphin we saw at the very end of the trip, 200 yards from the harbor, breached 6 ft in front of the boat 4 TIMES!  It was very exciting as I had promised dolphins to the young ladies of the Shatto family and they were standing right there at the rail when he jumped into the air giving us all a great show.

Good birding

Capt. Tommy

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21. November 2008 by Capt. Tommy.

When anyone asks what is the best time to come see the whoopers I tell them November/December. While we will get a front or two in and the weather will be like it is today, Cold and windy most day are like yesterday. We took of on a 1PM trip with 22 folks and it was glorious. Light winds, 75 degrees, sunshine, and super-clear water.

Right out of the harbor we got within about 20 yards from a very cooperative Common Loon. HE stayed on top for about 2-3 minutes and we were off again headed north towards the refuge. When we got to Dunham Bay we were treated to a Piping Plover.

When we got up to the Lobstick territory there they were 10 feet off the channel!  We eased in about 30 yards north of them as they worked towards us. I had just mentioned how whoopers need blue crabs in their diet but are omnivorous when the female came up with a 4 foot snake! This is always entertaining as it takes the bird a while to kill the snake by shaking it while the snake writhes around the bird’s bill. The juvenile was bothering her the whole time hoping to get a little snake snack and it was his lucky day as his mom relented and gave the young whooper the snake which he slurped down like a large piece of spaghetti.

As we continued up the channel we encountered two more pair right up against the channel and a cohort of 5 sub-adult cranes flew in together and landed about 50 yards from the boat! Our photographers were thrilled with the opportunity.

At a bit after 3PM we headed back south through Mesquite and Carlos Bays siting the usual suspects, Osprey, Willets,  Blackbellied Plovers, Royal Terns, and Long-billed Curlew. When we got past Long Reef in Aransas Bay in search of Roseatte Spoonbills we ran into a pod (more like a herd) of Dolphin. There had to be about twenty of them. We idled through as they swam around the boat in four feet of gin clear water.  I throttled up to about seven knots making a nice wake and they all fell in behind the boat to do a little surfing. With 6-8 on each side and a few off the bow they played in the wake for about 5 minutes or so delighting the crowd. Finally they all fell off and we headed in to Fulton Harbor to finish a perfect day.

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