§ Puff....

On Saturday, thru Ebird, a notice of a rare [Tundra] duck was sighted in our Bay waters!! So, Sunday morning, I took a drive to the area to see if I could spot it! No luck, as the ducks on the water were so far away, even with binoculars I couldn't decipher which duck was which, and my tripod and scope were at home...100s of them. Not to mention birders galore from all walks of life galivanting around in hopes of seeing the rarity themselves. I still walked some along the shore and along the Naval Air Station Road. Then hopped back in the car when it began to get mighty warm out there in the sun [83⁰F before noon!] and drove to another park to finish my day's step count....

I encountered a few wildflowers and as I turned to get to the pathway, a dead tree made its appearance and from where I stood on the park's lawn, I saw a fire breathing dragon?!!!

Puff The Imaginary Dragon Lived By the Sea!!

§ Look Up in the Sky! Is It a Plane? A Bird? Nope....a Cloud! But, What a Cloud!!!!

First....I detest time change! As I type this up it's only 10 a.m. and lunch shoulda been served hours ago. I wish the government would get their thumbs out of their butts and set it one way or another and let people live without having to adjust their lives every 6 months. Just when our system gets settled we have to stop and rearrange our habits. It's been proven more lives are lost because of this...both human and animals. And we ARE NOT saving energy one bit; both physical and material energy. Every 6 months I write my congressmen and voice my opinion. Perhaps someday they'll listen?!!

_ _ _

Okay, I step down from the podium and begin my Sunday morning walk in the park post...

I got my chores done after breakfast [dishes, cleaning the kitchen counters, etc.] and decided it's been a while since I walked the curvy, hilly, pathways at Guth Park just off the interstate highway northwest of town. I drove there, but stopping at an area at the end of the ship channel's basin "turnstile" or turning circle [where ships hafta go to turn around to head back out of the port...dunno the nautical term].

Usually there are a lot of water birds hanging around in that spot. Yet, when I do go there, I make sure it's on a Sunday. This highway. Joe Fulton Corridor, is used mostly by heavy trucking traffic [18 wheelers] to the port of call to dock and unload/load cargo onto or from the tankers and cargo ships. Trust me when I say 'they own the road'...and don't slow down!! Sundays are usually pretty quiet if I go early enough.

On this particular day, the small number of birds along the mudflats and ponds was minimal. I didn't stay long...walking a short distance on both sides of the highway, up and down, snapping photos a few times, and sucking in my breath, hoping to not see an 18 wheeler barreling down my way at 65MPH so I could cross the road and get back in the car safely.

Once back in the car, I head to the park. This particular park has miles of paved paths, very hilly, and full of interests for everyone. Picnic tables, duck pond, benches galore, swimming pool, Disk Golf Course, playgrounds, senior center, and yep....birds! But, once again, migrants were not heard or seen. I am thinking that they had a different route to get to their wintering habitat because of the extreme drought through central USA. Anyway, I walked uphill, downhill, and up again. At one time, after the sun broke from the clouds the heat of the morning began to drain my energy. I sat on a bench and scanned the treetops for any birds.

I saw two vultures soaring above, cowbirds, grackles, sparrows and starlings. The sky and the trees were the highlight for now. In fact I saw one extraordinary cloud formation**!!! Got a photo!! [below] I walked to the duck pond....Up and down more hills, back to the car and left for home with the AC running full blast. Another hot day.

**This was the best 'bird' I've ever seen!!! Can you see it? At first what came to mind was the phoenix rising from the fire, but then after looking at it when I got home...more an eagle?!!

Maritime Glossary

§ In Search of a Vagrant...

On Wednesday of last week, when there was a break in the rainfall, I jumped in the car and took off in search of a special bird. I never found the bird I was looking for [that day...I did find it later in the week upon a return trip], but the drive, over wet highways, I watched the clouds as I made my way to the private property and then, later, on the way to Wright's Pond to check the egret rookery nearing the beginning of Texas Hill Country! This is what I encountered in part:

 

This is the private property where the vagrant bird was reported seen. The owner was gracious enough to let me go through the gate and into the back side of the house to scope out the landscape for the bird! He was a birder too, obviously, since he had at least a dozen hummingbird feeders and seed feeders throughout the open spaces! By the way, I was kinda skeptical to enter, they had a pit bull. All it did was slobber all over me in friendship. I'm sure it would've been different if the owner wasn't there. Then, it started to drizzle again, so I took off to the rookery. Along the highway you can see the beginning of the hill country which is quite a big deal to Texas Natives...

I arrived at the junction taking me toward San Patricio Texas and Wright's Pond. There, I pulled off on the shoulder of the busy highway and watched for baby egrets in the nest. Found 'em!! Photos taken before the rain began again and I headed back home about 40 miles away and lots of potential of more  highway flooding!

I will have better photos and close ups of the baby egrets in the nest on my Bird Photo Blog, opening publication on Saturday.

...and to continue showcasing my Trolls...

↓ My 22nd Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed Pilgrim circa: 80s?

§ Toffee Pecan Cookie'll Ease My Mind...

Bud and I have kept busy in the early morning hours for the last few days. Among several other odd jobs on our work list, last weekend,  since we can't find anyone that could do the work for us because of Covid-19 and contractors' back-log of jobs  themselves, we tore off the patio door hurricane shutter ourselves  we swept and scrubbed the concrete to free it of dirt, dust, blown-in grass and leaves from seasons before, and have since had it laying on the patio with all our wooden benches strewn haphazardly all over the place to make room for the gigantic shutter [8 feet by 12 feet]. It's not really heavy to work with; just awkward. Anyway, the reason we tore it off was to get some sealant to 'paint' along the bottom and along the foundation [it's a low patio door/shutter and if it rains heavily, it can flood in the house and on the carpet easily]. It's been 5 years since it's been sealed, and we figured it was time to do it again. So, once the shutter was off, we both took our brushes and laid the sealant down; waited 48 hours to dry and rehung the shutter just yesterday. That job of work is done now for another 5 years. We were lucky to not have it leak badly when Hurricane Harvey hit a few years back. Better safe than sorry I figure.

In the meantime, we mowed lawn before it got hot. I went to the islands again on Monday morning and saw quite a few migrant birds; exciting to see them again. I had to go to find a store with puzzle glue since we finished the last of our puzzles at home [by the way, if I order more puzzles online...the promised delivery date was May 15th thru June 30th]. My sister got wind of the two of us being out of puzzles so she Fed-Exed two of hers that she was done with. I've had the last of ours stored in the puzzle cabinet table to glue and frame it for Halloween. I need glue! In order to begin one of the two she sent.

Let me tell you about my drive to the islands the other day, and stopping at the 'swamp' called the Willows, where feathered buddies tend to prefer this as one of the popular 'stops' during their trek up north....I get about half way to Port Aransas, and the digital road signs flashed "Road Work Ahead" "Be Prepared to Stop"...."Expect Delays". I drive on thinking how bad can it be? Wrong!!! Incoming traffic was stopped, for 30 minutes! The line of vehicles behind me was growing leaps and bounds. Thing was, no traffic was coming from the other direction. What gives? Finally, a showing of outbound traffic! Then, slowly, creeping inches along at a snail's pace, the inbound got through. One lane...one direction. The county decided they should resurface the road. During the day instead of night repair?!!! I was debating if I should use the ferry to return back to Corpus. It would be a long round-about, out of the way home. Probably and hour difference. Logic told me to just go home the way I came and expect another 30 minute delay. Going home wasn't bad, but it sure put a dent in my day, birding.

Wednesday, I had to find glue as I said. I found some at Walmart, and then from Flour Bluff [a suburb of Corpus] I went to Packery Channel to walk a bit. The birders there saw [including me] a bird that is not even supposed to be in Texas [I saw one from my record keeping once before here...in April of 2015]. Got pictures of it...a beautiful male, with all the bright colors!! Whoa. Once I got home, I made us tuna salad sandwiches for lunch and mixed up some sloppy joe recipe for dinner. Cooking is out of the way.

Oh, and one more thing....Texas is going to reopen for business with 25% capacity for places such as restaurants, offices, department stores, etc. Come May 1st. I am leery of this move, but intend to stay away until another 4 weeks or so to see the outcome if the virus returns or not. In the meantime, I will continue to keep cautious with 6 feet distance and masks. Time will tell. I can't help but think it's a bit premature. The right wing in me says we need to get a boost in the failing economy and gain back our social life, while the left says are we doing it all wrong and our ideologies are blinding us?  We have had no new cases of the virus for several days and over 40 of the 99 [in the county!] have recovered. A good sign, but still there is the catastrophizing of my instincts once again, shifting into high gear.

I'm gonna go eat a toffee/pecan cookie I found at Walmart's bakery; bought on a whim.  That's gonna get my mind at ease.  At least for now.

§ Ella Phantz-Gerald on a day out....

She begged to go along with me!! I wasn't sure if it was wise for her to be out and about because of her long snout and the virus spreading thru the droplets of humans into the nasal cavities!! But, she convinced me being protected in the car, she was safe...We took a long drive on the ranch land the other day! We did some birding; Ella was elated to use her own set of binoculars for viewing. Bud stayed home...he didn't want to be caught with an elephant in the car if we were stopped for being out and about; just driving.  We weren't with anyone else, so we weren't going against the rules set by the Texas Governor.  The two of US figured it was best without Bud complaining anyway.  We saw not only hawks, kestrels, doves, red-winged blackbirds, sandpipers, killdeer, cardinals, not forgetting farmers working their land for crops, meadowlarks, shrikes and sparrows.  We spotted a couple of species I haven't seen in a few years, so that was exciting for me. A pair of Roadrunners ran across the gravel road in front of the car [by the time I realized they were roadrunners, they were in the barrow ditch and out of sight of the one with the camera]. And the elusive, ever-so-hard-to-find because of the camouflaged plumage...the Upland Sandpipers. We saw two in a newly plowed field before they flew off. By that time, Ella was getting bored and she climbed into the back seat and snoozed the rest of the way home.  Party-pooper!  The next day of staying at home, she helped us work a bit on the jigsaw puzzle we have set up.  I guess that was more her forté.

PS...don't forget to take a bit of fun with our national "Lock Up and Staying Inside"...play along with the Scavenger Hunt...the link to the hunt items to be found is at the top of my blog!!  Y'all have until the 15th of April before it's closed down.  We have a few participating, and they're doing a bang up job of it!!  Come see.

§ West Guth Park

Early this week, I decided to go to West Guth Park for a change. Here, a bond issue was passed a couple of years ago for improvement, and I tell you, anyone that has a typical stride while walking can easily get the cardiologist preferred 10,000 steps. And it's hilly so a good workout at the same time. The sky couldn't make up its mind to clear off or remain cloudy. So, I looked up a lot to check what lay in store for weather, while I was accumulating my step count.  Before I got a good start with my walk, the high school that is nearby, up one of the hills, was just beginning their day.  Over the intercom [heard outdoors also] I was pledging allegiance along with the students.  Then, out came the track and field team, working out with their gym clothes on.

Looking up...I watched the clouds, yes, and the sunrise, but I also became fixated with the tree silhouettes while finding many different species of birds to photograph. I apologize right now for so many tree branches. LOL----

Among the branches, I spotted, shrikes, doves, mockingbirds, woodpeckers, cardinals, starlings, flycatchers.  On the pond, ducks, shovelers, egrets and seagulls.  And then around the bend on one of the trails...

Monk Parakeets:

and the menacing, mean-looking, cowbirds [the males are black with bright, evil-looking, red eyes!].

As for flowers, mostly weeds [dandelions and this red blossom out in the middle of nowhere].  If you happened to notice the pine cones in the previous series...did you know that pine trees are in ALL fifty states of the U. S.?  I just read that.  lol

§ He Was Caught...Tweeting?

Saturday, all day, along the Coastal Bend of Texas, it was the annual Whooping Crane Festival. Of course, the biggest draw of the birding crowds is the Crane, but ALL birding hotspots were crowded. At Port Arnasas, it was a special spot this past weekend. There was another rare sighting [not the hawk previously mentioned in another post]. And, it was just 30 miles from home. After finishing my weekly laundry, I headed out. When I arrived at the refuge, it was like a scene from the popular movie, "The Big Year"!! No place to park, and people everywhere.

To make a long story short, the bird was spotted again by dozens of birders and the sound of camera shutter buttons echoed through the air. Altho, where it landed after a fly-over it wasn't a good spot for photographers. Too many objects obstructing its body. Oh well. But, I did enjoy watching the rounds of 'debates' with a pair of Snowy Egrets. I can't say there was a winner crowned champion.  I think it was legally called a draw, or perhaps we could honestly say only their hairdresser knows for sure...

What did you call my mama?



You can run, but you cannot hide!



I see you, behind the reed!  And you look as scared as Trump v Bloomberg



I'm here ... I can wait forever if need be...



Here I come, ready or not!



Now, onto the NEXT primary.  I think I won for now, as you can see the  "V" for victory in my hairdo...