An Hour's Drive Time-Couple Hours on the Beach & Park Rd.

Before the cold front moved in and before the predicted high wind warning along the coast, I drove to Padre Island National Seashore to walk the beach. I LOVE going here 'cause it's always so very quiet; without too many other people. And the beach is always much cleaner than the public beaches!! It was a beautiful morning. The drive from the little residential area once over the causeway to the federal park entrance gate was empty of traffic early in the morning, and several hawks were perched on the power lines. I didn't stop to get photos much, 'cause the sun was in BACK of the raptors giving me nothing but silhouettes.  A few miles down the road, on a road sign, perched and singing was one of my favorite birds...I stopped [as I said, no other traffic was seen for miles!], rolled down the passenger window and listened to the morning reveille of the Eastern Meadowlark!!! [photo of it singing will be seen on my bird photography blog when I get it loaded to the blog admin]  Once I showed my senior parks' card, I drove to the end of the road....where the road meets the surf!! I parked on the beach, got out, and was greeted with the warming sun and mild sea breeze....did I mention just how beautiful it was?

Come walk with me....
This is what I saw:

....the empty beach, looking south to Mexico and then looking north toward town...





...along Bird Basin Road that juts off the main park road toward an open bay, I took a distance photo of a large dune and then zoomed in...




...after my walk along the beach, I got back in the car to drive the 30 miles back home, but stopped at the duck pond and the newer constructed bird blind to see what water fowl was on the pond. The prairie grasses and sea oats are beautiful when going to seed in the winter months!! But, I got distracted by a couple of Northern Harriers on the hunt, as you can perhaps see the harrier in the last of this upcoming series of photos [top left in photo 4]....





...Yes, I was REALLY distracted. In fact, I kept watching the raptors soar silently though the air....diving behind the dunes only to reappear farther away!!





...a lone egret appeared as it took off from the duck pond basin



...oh, and views of the duck pond blind [ducks and grebes]...




Well, it was time to head back home and make lunch. The drive heading out of the parkland was uneventful, until I got to the edge of north padre island residential...off in the distance a white tailed hawk was on another wooden platform....I pulled off onto the shoulder and aimed my camera out the car window just as it was taking to flight!!!