The Fulton-Rockport area relies on shrimping, oysters, spring breakers, and snowbirds! These small towns are located on the Texas Gulf Coast about thirty miles north of Corpus Christi. This is were we caught up with our friends, Pat and Jim. They had been in the area for about three weeks and were also there last year, so they were more than happy to show us around. The rain that started a couple of days before, followed us to the Gulf and plagued us almost daily. The second night we had a thunderstorm with wind and hail. There were huge puddles all around the campground in the morning; one even had a car in the middle of it (the tent that had been in that spot was on a small hill)!
One day we drove to Corpus Christi to do some errands and then drove part way back along the beach on Mustang Island. Spring break was just starting so there we a lot of students, mostly from Texas A & M. But there were also a lot of families and many, many senior snowbirds. At the end of the island, we took a free ferry back to the mainland. There were about six ferries running back and forth across the narrow channel. We couldn't believe how quickly they could load and unload.
We seemed to have missed most of the birds that migrate to this area for the winter. We did see Roseate Spoonbills, various ibis and herons, shore birds, gulls, and terns, and Whooping Cranes. The Cranes were viewed from the Skimmer, a birding cruise boat. We even saw one family group threaten another group that was getting into their territory. During the cruise we also saw Osprey and an Osprey nest, and Caracara (a member of the ------ family).
Another day we went to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. It was here we saw three alligators, a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, some wild hogs, and two pair of wild turkeys. The male turkeys were really stutting their stuff on one side of the road and the females were basically ignoring them on the other side.
