Field Trip! Another Day at Whitmire

While friends in Maine (3°F) laugh when we complain about the temperature falling to 40°, we're still cold. It was 31° when we awoke this morning. We didn't bring real winter clothes—after all it's South Texas. Little did we know. It was sunny today, but a bit cool (50s). It was dry and we'll take that over super-humid like it's been recently.

Today we went out to the Whitmire Unit. We were mainly out there to check the levels at Foster Lake. They had risen a bit since our last visit, so the recent rain did some good. There were lots of ducks on the lake, but too far away to identify. We also were there to bring back one of Biology's UTVs which had been parked out on the unit. It needs a bit of service.

While we were there, we also did a bit of searching for birds. Two Whooping Cranes were out on the marsh. We'd seen a pair there before, so this was good news. It looks like they may be making Whitmire a winter home. Too bad they will be leaving in less than a month. We also saw lots of Harriers and many of the usual wading birds. On the way into the unit we passed two big flocks of Snow Geese on farm fields. They will also be leaving soon.

A few groups of recent photos follow:

Ellen and Sarah looking for Whooping Cranes at Whitmire today. (note the matching volunteer jackets).

Here are a few photos from the UTMSI Wetland taken while we were having lunch during the Crane Festival.

Every night when I go to the dumpster with our little bag of trash, there is at least one raccoon in residence. They squeeze in through a dented opening in the top. Tonight I brought a camera and there were six of them.