Outdoor Traditions

Article by SALLIE LEWIS Photo by JOHN HUMBERT

Some of my most treasured childhood memories were made in Rockport, catching redfish, trapping blue crabs and shucking oysters under the light of a winter moon.

Winter, as it turns out, is my favorite time to visit the Texas gulf coast, though it was only recently that I came to appreciate one of the season’s biggest draws: The arrival of the Whooping Crane.

Late last year, I visited the sanctuary for the first time. An American alligator peered from a pond as I met Dr. Wade Harrell, a Whooping Crane Recovery Coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Laura Bonneau, the refuge’s Visitor Services Manager. As we departed for the tour, they shared the Whooping Crane’s resounding conservation story.

Back in 1941, there were just 15 Whooping Cranes surviving in the wild; by 1967 they were declared endangered. The latest winter survey estimated the current population at 506, securing this land and the people who protect it as leaders in America’s wildlife conservation movement.

“You don’t think of birds being at the top of the food chain, but they are here at the marsh,” said Harrell. “They’re like the comeback kid.”

Formed in 1937 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Aransas National Wildlife Refuge today is comprised of five different land parcels with more than 115,000 acres. Protecting Whooping Crane habitat has been a crucial contributor to their growing population, as have a handful of new conservation efforts spearheaded by Harrell and his team.

In the past decade, an initiative involving the use of cellular towers, GPS devices and telemetry work to track the cranes movement has proved particularly meaningful.

“Most of the recent science has come out of those efforts,” Harrell said.

Habitat restoration is another focus of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, particularly after Hurricane Harvey, with new breakwaters addressing the issue of shoreline erosion. Furthermore, as the Whooping Crane population continues to grow, so does their territory, as evidenced by the number of cranes seen beyond refuge boundaries.

Harrell works closely with private landowners on conservation easements, which will continue to ensure optimal management.

“Landowners have done a lot of conservation work for cranes,” he said.

As the sun tracked overhead, we stopped by one of the refuge’s most visited landmarks, a 40-foot observation tower that winds through layers of oak woodland before reaching a deck overlooking salt marshes, coastal prairies, oak mottes, and swales. Oyster boats specked the skyline by San Antonio Bay as we glassed the horizon looking for Whooping Cranes. To my surprise, we found a pair far off in the distance, grazing on killifish, clams, blue crabs and marsh snakes.

“When I’m talking to the public, I describe them as winter Texans,” Bonneau said. “They come for the seafood and temperate weather.”

Over the course of the morning, I learned all about these winged winter Texans, who are celebrated annually with a festival in Port Aransas. (This year’s event is scheduled for Feb. 21-24.)

Every year, approximately 60,000 people visit the refuge, lured by Mother Nature’s unspoiled splendor. Though only 5,000 of the refuge’s 115,000 acres are open to the public, there are six miles of hiking trails and a winding 16-mile auto tour that is worth exploring on your next trip.

“I always tell people the best thing you can do is find a spot and stay there,” Bonneau said. “You have to slow down to get that experience.”

At the end of my visit, I did just that and was rewarded as a pair of whoopers flew overhead, slender and regal with their white plumage and red-capped heads. What a gift, I thought, to await this ethereal endangered species every year.