Aransas Wildlife Refuge

Aransas Wildlife Refuge is a wonderful place to go if you enjoy seeing animals in the wild. We have been down to Aransas at least 4-5 times! This time, the surroundings were not as beautiful as they have been in the past. Texas has been having a really bad drought, so much of the water has dried up. The animals are not going to stay in a place where there is no water, so naturally we saw less animals than we ever have before. We did see some alligators, but normally we would see 10-20 of them. This time we maybe saw 4 (plus 5 babies). We also normally see more birds. This time we saw more deer than we ever have, and more javelina, also. We saw whole herds of them grazing from a distance. This used to be a beach where you could walk, but errosion has caused it be difficult to access. Plus, there are many trees and limbs strewn around this area because of Hurricane Ike.

Jason is photographing herds of javelina and deer, which were grazing in this open area--which normally would be completely full of water.

In the distance, you can see a few javelina--my camera doesn't have very good zoom. In the opposite direction, there were even more grazing--just even farther away. This area is usually completely full of water. Once when we were at this viewing deck, we saw a bobcat try to catch a baby duck which was swimming near the shore in some shallow water. He missed on his attack, and embarrassed... quickly disappeared into the thick brush he had jumped out of. It was really cool to watch, and I was glad he did not successfully catch the poor baby duck!

Here is the tallest observation deck in the refuge. From here, you can look all around to spot deer, javelina, and birds. We saw Whooping Cranes in the distance from up here.

Usually in this area, there is more water, and we see a variety of herins and ducks. We did see a great white egret, but not much else along this board walk.