Here we are at last, birding the Rio Grande Valley and the Texas South Coast!
Our travels will take us to some of the finest birding localities in the most bird-rich state in the union including: the vast salt marshes and bays of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, the sandy barrier beaches of hundred-mile-long Padre Island, 
the subtropical Rio Grande Valley, and the South Texas Plains.
We safely arrived in Corpus Christie on Wednesday afternoon and promptly began our Texas birding adventure: 40 species of birds in 2 hours!
Thursday we visited the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, first by boat, where we saw 
19 federally endangered whooping cranes – whoo hoo! Then we checked out the land portion of the refuge and saw a many other birds and a few alligators. Later, we saw a black-legged kittiwake, and a gull from Alaska who apparently had gotten a little lost!
More adventures ahead, I’ll check in again soon.
Bob
Black-legged Kittiwake
Photo credit: Bernie McHugh