This and That...

Just an eclectic post today. A bit of this, and some more of that. All animal life seen on our walks...

I've often posted photos of our fishing village on the island when we drive there for a morning outing. The other day, nice and sunny with a bit of a cool down from the summer's inferno, one of the two resident alligators was out and about. We had just talked to a couple who drove down here from Austin to do a bit of birding at the nature reserves and the man asked about the alligators "Have you ever seen them?" Of course I said we have on other days. Chatted a bit about how big they are, their distant calling sometimes, etc. But they were not to be seen at this time. Then, when Bud and I were up on the watch tower Bud noticed the female 'gator, Bags. We got the Austin couple's attention and they walked out on the pond level observation deck and watched Bags 'float by' at her leisure. I took pictures...



...my favorite this time is the ridges of her tail!!!

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About a week ago the Texas Bird Site I frequent told us here in Corpus Christi that the European Bar-tailed Godwit was back! Earlier by months, like early Spring, it was spotted and recorded as a 'first ever seen' in Texas! At the time it was morphing from its breeding colors to most likely the winter plumage. Well, this time around, upon its return to our area, it's in full Winter Plumage now. And much prettier. Or handsome if the case may be. And where it was reported seen this October it was at an area much much easier to see it...and no mucky bay mud to traipse thru! [The first time Bud and I went out to find it, it was along the shores of Oso Bay near the Naval Air Station, and the mud was quite a messy nuisance for us bird enthusiasts.] Of course I'll save the BEST photos for my bird photo blog, but I will show you this panoramic view. The one lone rare Bar Tailed Godwit is easy to distinguish from the birds of a feather it was foraging with...the MARBLED Godwits:

Can you find the Bar Tailed? It's pretty easily seen here...

Yep, the lighter, smaller, one to the far left. If you picked that one, you were right.

Now, I read a bit about them recently. Some come from Europe, others from New Zealand. But most of all, they're not supposed to be in Texas. Astoundingly, the Godwits fly from their breeding grounds in Alaska to New Zealand!!---NON STOP! For Eight days straight!! Birds continue to flabbergast me with their amazing stamina, intelligence, and feats of survival.

Again, later in weeks to come, I will post more and better photos of the individual Bar Tailed Godwit on I'd Rather B Birdin'. Just keep your eyes on the 'bulletin' above where I link each weekend a new bird series of photos.


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On another boardwalk, in another nature reserve park, I spotted this gecko [I believe it's a gecko anyway because of the extra long toes on a short stocky body. If I'm wrong, please correct me!]. It was clinging to a slat in the boards of the boardwalk...





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And still, more creatures of nature...



...seriously, this time of year with the late in the season rain storms we've had here and on the islands, the other day while driving to Port Aransas, it was like driving through a swarm of locusts in Nebraska countryside when I was a child! Our windshield played a bit of havoc tho...some didn't survive!! Everywhere we went the dragonflies were....well, everywhere!! I told Bud before we got out of the car to walk..."Don't open your mouth to talk, or you might have a lunch you didn't order!!"

Besides these beauties, there were orange ones, black ones, green ones and blue. I think the all red bodied one is the Scarlet Darter and the pink one is the Roseate Skimmer. Which is the male of the species...the roseate female is more brown. Also, as I followed their flight patterns through my zoom lens slowly in order to capture them after they landed, I think they can move [four wings] the fore and hind wings independently. Does anyone know this for a fact? It sure looked like it tho. I guess I shoulda set the camera on cam-corder and recorded their flight.