Goose Island State Park

Brown Pelican

It was still cold and rainy the morning we left Galveston but by the time we arrived at Goose Island State Park the skies were lighter and the rain had turned to mist.  Although David and I had visited Rockport and the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge before, we had not camped at Goose Island.

The park has two camping areas, one right on the beach and one in the woods about a quarter mile from the beach.  We elected to stay in the woodland after our windy stay on Galveston Island - a little protection from the wind sounded like a good idea.  

After a short hike near our campsite and some of David’s excellent homemade tomato soup for dinner to warm us, we went to a birding program given by volunteers in the park.

 

Great Blue Heron 'take off'

 

The next morning the sun was out and though still a cool 48 degrees, we could tell it was going to be an excellent day.  Inspired by the birding program the previous night, we decided to join the 8 am bird walk.  We had a great time birding with other campers and Jim, the volunteer leader from Arizona, was excellent.  Jim has been coming to Goose Island every winter for the past 10 years to lead the birding activities in the park.

Roseate Spoonbills and Ibis

The weather just got nicer so we stayed outside in the sun as much as we could. The next three days consisted of early morning bird walks that didn’t end until 11 or 12, followed by lunch at our campsite, then an exploratory afternoon hike with Maya, dinner and the nightly birding program.

 

Bird Tracks on the beach

 

 

Jelly Fish

 

 

The Big Tree

 

Goose Island is known for two celebrated residents so one afternoon we took a drive to look for them.  The first one, the Big Tree, an enormous 1,000-year-old coastal live oak was relatively easy to find as it stays in one place. The other one, the rare endangered whooping crane, was going to be a little trickier.  

A very small population of whooping cranes winter on the Texas coast around Goose Island so our chances of seeing them were fair.  We were so glad to find five whooping cranes - one pair and then another pair with a juvenile crane.  They were fairly close to us and we got a great view of all five cranes with our binoculars.  But they were not quite close enough for my new Christmas present, a telephoto lens, to photograph very well.  I am developing quite a respect for good wildlife photographers.

Seems like we can't escape fire but at least this one

was a 'prescribed burn' to improve bird habitat on

the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

 

 

Brown Pelicans "Moe, Larry and Curley"