Whooping Crane Viewing Day in Beautiful St. Charles Bay On December 15th, Ken Johnson, Mark Arnold, Scott Cartier, and Jonah Freedman, went to view the whooping cranes on the western shoreline of the Blackjack Peninsula where the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge provides them a winter haven. We left at 9 AM from our put-in, just down from the Big Tree Monument in Lamar and paddled about 2 miles directly across the bay to start our search. As we approached the refuge, we were immediately rewarded with the long distance view of two whoopers who were feeding on the shoreline. They flew off before we paddled close enough to see them well with our binoculars, so we turned left (north) and began a slow paddle along the shoreline, where, incidentally, it is illegal to cross onto the land anywhere in the refuge. A few miles further, we saw another two (or maybe the same two) who were wading and feeding in a desultory manner along the shoreline. Staying well off from the beach, we were lucky to have some great viewing of these large and stately birds. We then continued paddling north along the shoreline, but saw no other cranes, though there were many other wading birds and ducks along the way. The warm and sunny day continued to make it a special paddling adventure as a fairly stiff southeasterly breeze appeared and gave us a boost as we continued along the shoreline. We ate lunch at what appears to have once been a research facility, though now seems to be defunct. However, it was a good spot to start thinking of our return trip to the cars, and after proceeding another half-mile or so north, we turned back into the wind and mildly rolling seas for a 5 mile open crossing to the cars. We made the approximately 10 mile, 5 hour roundtrip during a mostly low tide and were treated to many places of very shallow water on the return. Although there is some open water on this trip, I think it is a great day trip, especially with the presence of the whoopers. Jonah Freedman Pictures of trip at http://community.webshots.com/user/johnsonkw1page 2 in "St. Charles Bay Paddle" album ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Dec 15 2002 - 20:43:05 PST
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