Second trip to Texas. We found Brutus. His bill and neck had healed! Dave Brandt and I saw him while we were traveling up the Intracoastal. Brutus was probably with a band of other sub-adults or adult singles on the Blackjack Peninsula. He flew right over Dave and me in our boat, and I photographed him. He came so close he didn’t fit all in the frame…

From Kevin’s boat, I also photographed the Green-White and Yellow-Gold pair with chick Yellow-Blue-Yellow—the same family I had seen on the Platte last October. They were on Bloodworth Island. The chick had grown and looked strong. This was the first time I had seen the same whooping cranes in two different places.

We also spent a foggy morning with Gold-Blue and Green3-White2 and their very healthy-looking chick. On the Lamar Peninsula, I met Al and Diane Johnson at their ranch, where they have long hosted people at their Crane House. I also got a quick glimpse of the Johnsons’ longtime winter resident pair of whoopers, YAY and NAY.

I photographed more whooper trapping with Dave Brandt and Barry Hartup at the refuge and on ranches on Welder Flats, across San Antonio Bay, and documented Aransas wildlife diversity in whooper habitats. With Dave, I retrieved the timelapse camera from the salt marsh whooper roost. It was a success—capturing many species that use the salt marsh, as well as the ebb and flow of tides, and even a couple of whoopers. Dave and I also reset a camera trap I had put out in the salt marsh, further inland from the timelapse camera.