Fee charged. Aransas NWR is better known among birders for its exceptional variety of resident and transient birds (the number of species seen within the refuge is now approaching 400). Look in the shallow waters along the margins of San Antonio Bay (as well as from the Jones Lake viewing platform) for Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish Egret, both ibis (White and White-faced), and a variety of ducks, grebes, and shorebirds. The oak woodlands along the birding trail immediately past the Heron Flats parking area are especially favorable for migrant landbirds. The Turk’s Cap along Heron Flats Trail is an excellent spot to see Buff-bellied Hummingbird from late spring through fall (ask the wildlife interpretive center staff for the most recent sightings).
Search for wading birds (ducks, grebes, Purple Gallinule, Common Moorhen) and alligators along Heron Flats Trail and from Jones Lake Platform as well. Wildlife along the tour loop becomes active (and therefore visible) in early morning and late evening, with Crested Caracara, Javelina (Collared Peccary), and Nine-banded Armadillo among the species that will sally forth from the brush to feed in open fields and along the shoulder.
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
P. O. Box 100
Austwell, Texas 77950
361-286-3533
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