Today at the EC/CTP meeting, we had a morning field trip!! It was nice to know that we wouldn't be sitting in meetings all day and it was great that the Texas Education Coordinator fought to have those trips for us. Today's trip was to a part of the reserve where the Whooping Cranes are. To start our trip, we got on our transportation for the week...it's really fancy...are you ready for this...a big yellow school bus! :) We took the bus, across a ferry, to the city of Rockport and got on our boat.
We crossed the Bay, into the intercoastal waterway (where we spotted our second group of bottlenose dolphins for the day), and then followed it all the way down to some islands. On the way through the intercoastal, we saw LOTS of birds. All the birders on the trips were super excited. Ruddy Turnstones, Oyster Catchers, Skimmers, Herons, Cara Caras, Spoonbills, and the Whooping Cranes just to name a few. I tried to keep up with them but they are so fast at spotting birds as we were boating by. 
The Whooping Cranes (which we discussed whether it's HOOPING cranes or WOOPING cranes pronunciation) were pretty awesome. They are giant birds. They have their highest number of them this year at 271, but because of the drought have lost about 20-30 of them. These cranes rely on blue crabs for the majority of their food source, and b/c of the drought there aren't as many crabs, and therefore the cranes don't have enough to eat. All in all it was great to get out of the meeting room and to be on a boat this morning!
The Whooping Cranes (which we discussed whether it's HOOPING cranes or WOOPING cranes pronunciation) were pretty awesome. They are giant birds. They have their highest number of them this year at 271, but because of the drought have lost about 20-30 of them. These cranes rely on blue crabs for the majority of their food source, and b/c of the drought there aren't as many crabs, and therefore the cranes don't have enough to eat. All in all it was great to get out of the meeting room and to be on a boat this morning!
We came back to the meeting space, and after going on a recon mission to find some caffience with Jennifer (DE), had meetings all afternoon. Tonight, we were supposed to have a shrimp boil on the beach with a bonfire, but b/c of the drought - no bonfires allowed. And then the weather got kinda nasty and so we had to cancel the beach altogether. But the shrimp was soooo good and caught locally with both a Turtle Exclusion Device and a Bycatch Reduction Device (just for you to know Amber!). Good day but I'm tired. So I'm off to bed. More tomorrow when we go to a ranch!!!
To be Continued...
1 comment:
Thanks for keeping us informed :) It's almost like we're on the trip with you except we didn't get to see any of the cool stuff. Hope the ranch is a good time before you have to head back tomorrow!
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