The Taxidermist's Wife: Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Alligator at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Austwell, Texas

We took a day trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Austwell, Texas. We left our condo on North Padre Island, crossed the Packery Channel to Mustang Island. We took the scenic route driving about 8 miles on the beach to Port Aransas.

We saw a lot of people surf fishing on Mustang Island. Most were catching whiting and hardhead catfish.

There are a lot of beach homes and condos near Port Aransas and it's a popular vacation spot, especially during spring break and summer.

Floating oil rigs parked near the ferry which goes from Port Aransas to Aransas Pass.

We drove through Rockport, across Capano Bay, heading to Austwell, Texas and the refuge (about 25 miles from Rockport).The original refuge headquarters is closed due to damage from Hurricane Harvey in August, 2017. Their current headquarters is in a mobile home. The refuge manager told us that the cement building had major roof and mold damage that it will need to be demolished and completely rebuilt at a later date. Garry had hunted in the area and had been to the refuge 15 years ago and at that time saw many displays in the headquarters, which were destroyed with the hurricane.

I followed directions for a change and didn't try to feed any animals.

There are nice boardwalks across the wetland areas.

Some of the wetland areas have observation platforms. I stayed on the platform!

The majority of the wild whooping crane population comes from Wood Bison Park in Canada to spend the winter at the Aransas Refuge. We saw on the local news that the Twenty-Third Annual Whooping Crane Festival was taking place in Port Aransas during our stay, so we stopped in at the Community Center for the birder's show, which was very interesting.

We spotted a pair of whooping cranes in the distance while on an observation platform.

Mustang Lake Observation Platform - Notice the many vultures roosting in the trees.

In the past Garry had walked on boardwalks through the wetland area near Mustang Lake, and observed many water birds and other wildlife. We could see the damaged boardwalks which are not yet repaired.