Two deep-south states – Texas and Florida – are known for their amazing assemblage of birds and other animals. The “Sister States in Birds”, as they are sometimes called, share many of the same birds – even going so far as to both claim the Northern Mockingbird as their state bird.
Texas gets more western birds, while Florida hosts some Carribbean species and Atlantic sea birds. Both states have extensive birding trails throughout the state, and I’ve seen many birds here that were also present in Florida. But those are just some birding facts; today I’m writing about “human” sisters in birds, Ingrid and I.
I can probably be most accurately labeled as a “wanna-be birder”, who just loves to photograph them. When two lady bloggers share the same interests they instantly become sisters – in this case sisters in bird photography.
Ingrid and I enjoyed our first birding outing together when we got together in Galveston, and her account of our escapade was quite hilarious – complimented by her excellent photography.
Meeting up again here in Port Aransas, we explored a top spot for Coastal Birding when we took advantage of the first decent weather day. Off we went on our adventure, to see and capture our feathered friends in action.
There are many coastal birding trails in this area, and we chose to venture through several: the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center and the Port Aransas Natural Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture in Port Aransas, and to Live Oak Park and Goose Island State Park in the Rockport-Fulton area. Looking back, those were about the only two decent weather days we had to hang out with the birdies.
Port Aransas
We spent hours watching and photographing a variety of wetland birds, including many species of ducks. As you might imagine, we had a blast capturing their antics and filling up our SD cards with thousands of images.
Getting up close to the Roseate Spoonbills was the highlight of our time together:
At the Natural Preserve at Charlie’s Pasture, we moved along the boardwalk as we endured the gloomy day – walking about 3 miles. This area used to be pastureland and is now part of the local heritage on Mustang Island Preserve as a natural habitat.
Rockport
On another day when the weather cooperated I drove up to visit Ingrid, who had moved on to Rockport, TX at the beginning of the year. This time I had a specific goal while visiting her: to see the Whooping Cranes. Followers may recall that I visited the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI last summer and observed first-hand their efforts to recover and reintroduce the endangered Whooping Cranes back into the wild.
At that facility, the foundation had made great strides in the recovery and protection of these endangered birds. It was here that I learned about Operation Migration, an organization that has played a leading role in the reintroduction of Whooping Cranes into eastern North America since 2001.
One of their more interesting endeavors has been leading migrating cranes via Ultralight – see more about their inspiring journey of the “Class of the 2014 migration” here.
While the Whooping Cranes migrating here are from Alberta, Canada, the ones I saw in Wisconsin migrated to St. Marks Wildlife Refuge in Florida. To get the best views of the birds here, I joined an early morning Whooping Crane and Coastal Birding Tour that departed from Fulton, TX. This guided boat tour glided along Aransas Bay and into the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, where we observed these incredible birds hunting the marsh in search of Blue Crabs, while defending their territory from other family groups.
While the cranes are the most famous winter Texans at these refuges, other feathered species have been documented, making the area one of the nations’s richest birding areas.
After my boat tour, I met Ingrid at the dock so we could continue stalking the Whooping Cranes. Most importantly, she took me to her “secret spot” to watch these majestic birds on private land near Live Oak Park. Using her truck as our observation platform, we had a good view of the area “migrants.”
If you’d like to see and learn more about the Whooping Cranes, Ingrid’s latest post is an excellent read. She was very fortunate to have parked near where these guys were hanging out. I have a feeling she was visiting them every day!
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Ingrid. Not only were we sharing the same interest of being wildlife enthusiasts, she was also generous with her time and gave me a private tour around Rockport and at Goose Island State park. I guess that’s just what “sisters” do!
If you want to see more, my Bird Gallery has been updated.
Lowes Travels 
Sure sounds like you two girls had a wonderful time birding together. I noticed that Steve and Al missed all these adventures…probably a very smart idea. I can just see Steve rolling his eyes as you snap away!!!
Mona Liza, you are getting to be an expert at taking bird photo. I just loved your photos of those gorgeous brilliant pink wings of the roseate spoonbills. That is just the most beautiful bird. Great job capturing the birds!
Thank you Pam, since we can’t hike here 😦 I focused on my bird photography.
Pam you are very perceptive…Ha ha we left our hubbies behind so we can spend as much time we want birding and photographing.
Fantastic places and great pictures! Thanks! 🙂
I think you should visit Port Aransas and the National Regufe to see these birds, lots of opportunities to see Roseate Spoonbill and Whooping Cranes. On the other hand you can also catch the spring migration of the Neotropical birds in Daupin Island or Fort Morgan in Alabama.
Thanks for this post! Your photos are beautiful and make me want to get on the road right now! Unfortunately we can’t leave for a few weeks. I also love to photograph birds and am in the middle of planning a spring RV trip to Galveston, Rockport and other parts of Texas. Ingrid and I have been exchanging emails and she has been a huge help. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the whoopers will still be around when we get there.
I’ve been following your blog for a while and would appreciate any tips you can give me for favorite campgrounds and “don’t miss” things in the area.
Hi Beth, Im sure Ingrid has provided you with list of things to do in Galveston and Rockport. In Port Aransas, we stayed at Gulf Waters RV Resort where sites are owned and rented out. Our stay there made up for the lousy weather we had. We were at #724 and if you read my previous post we had a lot of birds visiting the pond and we had a great view. We also stayed at Mustang Island State Park, which is just a paved parking lot with hook ups. Be sure to be at Rockport early March while the Whooping Cranes are still there. Goose Island State Park would be a good spot to park in, while visiting Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. But Ingrid has more info as she stayed in Rockport for a month.
Awe, great post and some spectacular captures. While I keep visiting the whoopers, you keep visiting Leonabella, which I may venture back over to myself. Now we’ll need to move onto landscape photography in the Rocky Mountains 😉
Its a date, see you somewhere in CO!
Reblogged this on Live Laugh RV and commented:
My friend, fellow blogger and RVer, MonaLiza just wrote a great post with some gorgeous photos that I just had to share. Hope you enjoy her post as much as I did.
Thank you sister 🙂
Fantastic shots, wow what a wonderful bird adventure!!!
Thanks and yes we had a wonderful time birding and photographing.
What an amazing day you spent with Ingrid! Fantastic shots, and you captured their beautiful wings and actions.
Indeed, Ingrid and I can hang out all day shooting birds.
What a great post. Your pictures are fantastic. The spoonbills and the dolphins. I really love the early one of your two sisters. I sure wish I could have joined you. This is one of my MOST favorite things to do only topped by birding from a kayak. Thanks for letting me enjoy this from afar. I sure did!!
With you and Laurel and us would have great time here. These birds were just all over the place.
Love the Roseate Spoonbill MonaLisa…
Glad you and Ingrid had a great time. We haven’t spent time there, but I’m thinking that might have to change!
Whooping Cranes and Roseate Spoonbills are the main reason we stopped by here.
Fabulous post, Mona. Your bird shots are incredibly beautiful. Loved seeing the Spoonbills and especially that female one giving the Tricolored Heron a bit of her mind. 🙂 Seeing those Dolphins must have been a real treat.
Oh yeah we had a blast. Observing those birds are really fun to watch.
Kindred souls….both of you filled with so much spirit and love for life and all the beauty you see! Super special…an adorable collection of memories to last a lifetime. Just the best ever!!
You got that right, Carla! Memories to last forever.
So much fun you two had together — you are truly sisters at heart. I still wish I could have joined you in your birding adventures and to just hang out together. I’m not going to miss the next rendezvous, no matter what!! Your bird photos are spectacular, ML — you are great at capturing the personalities of the birds.
We missed you too Laurel. It would have been more fun with three birders giggling while shooting birds 🙂
To be sure, your bird photos are perfection. But……that croc picture was over and above! You could just feel the menace.
Thank you Sue, he made sure we stayed far from him.
Very interesting post and great pics!! You girls are darling, too! Looked like fun.
Thank you Linda, we enjoyed our time together shooting birds!
You two definitely had a great adventure together! You may call yourself a wannabe birder MonaLiza but your photographer says otherwise…stunning! 🙂
Aww, thank you LuaAnn, and the girls had a blast!
Great pictures! Thanks for sharing these. 🙂
Thank You Jane.
You both look fabulous… oh, and the photos of the birds… well those are fabulous too! The roseate spoonbills were gorgeous! I just now learned what they were… thank you!
Thank you Nancy, the girls had a blast.
I love the pictures. Especially the pink bird. Just fantastic!
Thank you and I never get tired of these pink birds!
Beautiful
So far, the two of you are the best bird bloggers I follow. What a treat to see the two of you make the best birding tandem. 🙂 These photographs belong to a some sort of a bird magazine, if there’s any. Or maybe you should start that one too. 😀