Whopping Cranes in Texas

One of the places I went to between Big Bent National Park Texas and the Mississippi River is Goose Lake State Park in Texas right next to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. I went there because it is a good place to see some of the whopping cranes on their wintering ground. This is not the only place where you can see whopping cranes in winter.
Here are bits and pieces of the one sign about them in the park put up by Texas State Parks.

Since I was in Wood Buffalo National Park this summer, it is nice to "catch" the cranes here in Texas.

 For the record Wood Buffalo National Park is mostly in Alberta but also partly in the Northwest Territories so the part of the sign below is not entirely accurate. But then again they actually knew it was Canada so they are above average right there.

Interestingly enough the cranes who fly in a nearly straight line makes this trip in 4000 kilometres (2500 miles as the sign says) but with all the detours I do I did it in 8,000+ kilometres, double and this does not include small trips I do when I am stopped somewhere.

The big difference to me was to see how close they were to humans in Texas compared to how remote they are in Canada in summer, but then again they are nesting when they are in Canada and need more privacy.

I saw eleven at one time and pretty much this is the estimated number in the area.

Remember I only have a small point-and-shoot camera and I specialize in fuzzy bird pictures.

the birds in flight and a few on the ground with the whopping cranes in the photo below are sandhill cranes which are quite common in Wood Buffalo National Park and all around that area. They are the one I kept on seeing on this trip.

...considering the camera I have I am really happy with the next two pictures.

Just for comparaison this is the type of place where you see them in Wood Buffalo National Park...when you see them, mostly they are out there far from visitors.

You can obviously just search "whopping cranes" on your own but if you want to see some really good pictures I recommend this site. I am guessing they they are not using little point-and-shoot cameras! ;-)