This & That

We've been busy since April and the time has really flown! We took a few days to get Spearhead Ribeye Dude settled in at the farm once he arrived in late May. As far as we can tell, he likes his new harem and seems very content. We hope the spring will bring 10 new little "Black Baldies" as Angus-Hereford cross cattle are called.

Since leaving Rockport/Fulton, we have continued our birdwatching at the farm and in Austin. Here are two images of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk that we have been watching as he/she matured and took flight. The first was taken on May 30 and the second on June 9.  You can see the difference between the "tennis ball head" in the first and the more mature look of the second.  This bird appears quite large, so we suspect it's a "she," since they are larger than the males.

We watched the parent birds build their nest high in a big hackberry tree at the farm, then later saw Mother Hawk peeping over the edge of the nest while she sat on her eggs. Normally our Red-tails raise two babies, but this time only one appeared. We don't know if only one hatched, or if perhaps this is a young pair and were only able to provide enough food for one chick. At any rate, we are thrilled that our youngster has now taken flight and can often be seen flying from tree to tree and calling peee...peee...peee (translate feeeed me, feeeeed me!).

The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is the most abundant and wide-spread of the large buteo hawks. They have a wingspan of 4-4.5 feet and bulky bodies. They feed primarily on rodents, but I recently saw an adult bringing a 2-3 foot snake back to the nest for her young. Regardless, they do much more good than harm, and we are pleased to have them nesting at the farm.

The drought is severe not only at the farm in Hamilton County, but in Austin as well. Many plants that normally support our resident and migrant songbirds have produced few seeds to nourish them. Water is also scarce. We have tried to supplement their food sources with our backyard feeders and water sources, and have been rewarded with many visitors. Here is a  photo of a male Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris). 

He and his family are frequent visitors, as are several families of Lesser Goldfinch and various sparrow species. And, of course, we have an abundance of White-winged Dove and Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis).

I was thrilled a couple of weeks ago when I discovered this nest of baby cardinals on our front balcony. 

Unfortunately, within a couple of days they were discovered...most likely by Blue Jays, and disappeared.  Mother Nature can be harsh, but I will hope the Cardinals have better luck if they nest here again next year.

That's No Bull

We had barely returned to Austin and unpacked when we began work on another project.  Since last fall, the Goat Hill Farm cows have been without a bull.  Now that most of them have calved, it was time for us to add one to our small cattle herd.  My brother, Allan Jones, was in charge of finding our first bull, so John and I were charged with locating a new one. 

We began contacting breeders several weeks ago, and in early April went to "interview" Hereford bulls.  We selected Spearhead Ribeye Dude, shown above.  He is actually just a teenager....14 months old, but by the time he joins our cows in early June he will be 16 months old.  Hopefully his teenage libido will enable him to fall in love quickly and frequently so next year's calves will all be born in a 45-day time period.  Well have more photos of Dude in a couple of weeks, so stay tuned.

Au Revoir Rockport

All too soon it was time for us to say goodbye to Fulton/Rockport and return home to Austin. We had a great time at the coast, though, and wanted to share some of the highlights with you.

We've told you about the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, with its abundant bird life as well as alligators and other "critters." Besides the Whooping Cranes, Sandhill Cranes, Great Blue Herons and White Ibis featured earlier, we saw a number of other species in Aransas or nearby. This Caracara was fond of perching on fenceposts along the bay to compete with the ever-present seagulls for dead fish and other delicacies.

And, we saw many Snowy Egrets like the one below. Easily recognized by their bright yellow feet, yellow eyes and lores (the yellow patch below the eye at the top of its beak), they are lightening-fast fishermen. This one appears to be getting its soft, lacy breeding plumage, which was much prized by plume hunters in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Nearby is Goose Island State Park, the home of The Big Tree of Lamar. This giant Live Oak measures more than 35 feet in circumference, 44 feet in height, and has a crown spread of 89 feet. It is believed to be over 1,000 years old, and has been one of the subjects of Ripley's "Believe It or Not."

We also enjoyed the funky, laid-back atmosphere, of Rockport, Fulton, Port Aransas and Aransas Pass. Here is one of the shops that catches the eye.

In addition, there was Caroline's Cafe, where we enjoyed fantastic cheeseburgers and world-class onion rings. (John is an onion ring expert, and said these were among the best he has ever had!  He also liked the eye candy!)

For those of you who want to try them yourselves, be aware that Caroline's has moved about 1/4 mile to the west, and is now known as "Miss-Steaks." The burgers are just as good, and the steaks cover the plate, so be sure to stop.

Another of our adventures was a Saturday afternoon visit to The Pickled Pelican. I know, it looks like a bar, but a couple of times a month it hosts (if you can believe it!) belt-sander races. As you can see, there is even a South Texas Belt Sander Racing Association. These souped-up sanders race down the track at up to 20 mph. As you can see, they have their own personalities, and the crowd really gets into cheering for their favorites.

The area's funky atmosphere is balanced by a number of galleries, historic buildings and educational and cultural facilities. The Maritime Museum is one of these, and has many exhibits related to the seafaring past of the Texas Coast.

Close by is the Rockport Aquarium, with its displays of fish and other marine life found in the area. Here John and I admire the resident spotted moray eel. He has an amazing array of teeth, and was only too happy to "smile" for the camera.

A stone's throw from the Aquarium is the Bay Education Center. The Center is the result of a cooperative effort among the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, the City of Rockport and the Aransas County Navigation District. There is a wealth of information in the Center, as well as interactive and "touchable" exhibits that will interest adults and kids alike. One of the highlights of our visit was "Science on a Sphere," which uses computers and video projectors to display global data on a giant sphere. Here are several images taked during the presentation. The first is the view of the "Big Blue Marble, Earth" taken from space. The second shows commercial air traffic as it moves from continent to continent, and the third is Uranus, the seventh planet from our sun.

The Center, like the Aquarium, is free to the public. Don't miss it if you're in the area.

There are also plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. The area along the water near the aquarium and museum has not only a lovely beachfront park and fishing pier, but also an open field that was very popular with the kite-flying crowd.

We had planned to return to Austin at the end of February, but friends persuaded us to stay a few more days to celebrate Fulton Oysterfest. A fund-raiser for the Fulton Volunteer Fire Department, Oysterfest was a huge success.

One of the big tents was filled with food concessions (both raw and fried oysters, naturally,

along with the more traditional funnel cakes, foot-long hotdogs and plenty of beer. The other held an amazing array of arts and crafts for sale. Here's a day's catch being unloaded from one of the oyster boats. They're destined for the festivities, I'm sure.

Our favorite, though, was the contest to see who could eat the most raw oysters in the shortest time. Here are some images from the women's contest. I'm not sure the winner actually "enjoyed" her oysters, but she did eat 194 in 5 minutes! And the audience had a great time as well!

And, of course, the carnival was a big hit with young and old alike.

As we mentioned, we loved our RV site at Bay View RV Resort. Here the Bagley Pack poses for a portrait in the "yard" behind our site.

We look forward to being back next year!

Whooping It Up

Since our last post, we have discovered a Mecca for Whooping Crane watching...and only 10 minutes from our RV park! There are locations on St. Charles Bay in Lamar frequented by two families of Whoopers and a number of other cranes and waterfowl. A couple of freshwater ponds and a pasture thoughtfully mowed by the resident cows make it an ideal crane gathering spot. It's good for photography, too, especially if you have a 500mm lens. Unfortunately, I have only a 300mm, so the quality of my images isn't what I would like. These will, however, give you a pretty good idea of what one can see every day.

This family of Whooping Cranes was among the first we saw in Lamar. They claim this pasture as part of their territory and will chase other cranes away if they intrude. The female of the pair is banded on her left leg. I was told that the blue sleeve she wears on her right leg contains a transmitter that beams back information about her location every 7 minutes so scientists can monitor her movements. Their offspring is almost as large as the parents. He (or she) migrated with them from Canada in the fall, and will return with the flock in a few weeks.

Earlier in the week while I was crane-watching, a group of 5 birds landed in the pasture. I think they are probably members of a cohort of young adults that have not yet selected mates. As I (and a number of other photographers and birders) watched, several birds began leaping into the air and flapping their wings. Since their migration north will begin in early April, it means the breeding season for these magnificent birds is just around the corner. It appears that these cranes were "leaping for love" to practice their mating rituals. (The cow grazing in the background seems unimpressed, as do the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks by the pond.)

(Since this post is rather long, I have broken it into two parts. Continue reading for the rest of our Whooping Crane stories and images.)

Whooping it Up...continued

The following day we were fortunate to observe action of another kind...Whooping Crane Wars! The cohort was again in the pasture when the resident family arrived. The big male crane wasted no time in chasing the interlopers away, accenting his charges with much flapping and whooping.

　
The trespassing group took to the skies, and circled the area a number of times. They are spectacular on the wing, as you can see.

　

The cohort finally settled a short distance away in St. Charles Bay and began fishing for blue crab, clams and other tasty tidbits.

　

Unfortunately, they had chosen a section of the bay that is claimed by another family of Whoopers that arrived a few moments later.  They are known as the Johnson Family or the Crane House Family, after the property they claim as their territory.  This family consists of a male and female and their two chicks (now almost yearlings). You can tell the youngsters by the brown feathers on their heads.

The Crane House Family also wasted no time in driving the trespassing cranes from their territory.

　












Yesterday we again visited Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and learned that this year a total of 281 cranes have been counted wintering there. Of these, 45 are chicks who should reach maturity in two more years.

We were told that 263 cranes left AWR in April of 2010 on their annual migration to their summer range in Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories, Canada.  During the summer, 74 nests and 46 young cranes were spotted at Wood Buffalo NP, so it seems that almost all the young hatched last year made it back to AWR for the winter. That is very important, as the total wild and captive population of endangered Whooping Cranes worldwide is only 575 birds.  We also learned that newly-mated Whooping Crane pairs sometimes take several years to raise a chick successfully, and that they usually raise only one each year. (The Crane House Family is unusual in that they have successfully reared twins.)

We have thoroughly enjoyed observing these magnificent birds, and look forward to seeing them when we return next year.