Texas Now Magazine February 2014 | Page 28

Crabbing, Cantering & Cavorting A Story and Photos By Penny Hong Another Jaunt on the Jack Flash! “Hey, Mom, er, could I have that one? Dad? How about that one? Will you share? Please?” Whooping Crane Chick, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge We could almost supply a hopeful monologue for the juvenile Whooping Crane along the lines above. For nearly an hour we had been motionless, rooted quietly along the shoreline near a small pond watching a Whooping Crane family of three––two adults and one chick. They were “crabbing” big time! The pond was alive with Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidus), the mainstay of the Cranes’ diet and why they fly 2,500 miles south every October from Canada to get the enzymes the crab gives them for strong bones and egg 28 shells (a miracle symbiosis described in previous Texas NOW issues on the Journey of the Whooping Cranes). With no effort at all, all three were devouring Blue Crab after Blue Crab––a welcome change from years of drought and crane starvation. an amateur. He kept dropping his catch. Crane parents, you know, have to teach their youngsters how to catch and eat these delicacies while avoiding their sturdy and powerful pinchers. However, “Mom” and “Dad” were having none of this! They were much too busy to take time teach- However, the young juvenile, on his own, was inexperienced, Kathy Adams Clark And Her Husband, Gary Clark