§ Naval Air Station....nearby

I went out along Ocean Drive and ended up walking along the shore. It was a day like I've NEVER seen before. The bay was like a millpond. Absolutely void of any wave action. Not a ripple on the water's surface.  Now we all know, from our elementary science class, that the moon and the earth's movement makes the ocean wave action and tides....it was like the end of the world that afternoon.  Eerie.   As I trekked along the rocky shore, this is what I saw. Pay attention to the glass-like views of the bay!!!

If you'd care to see where there is LOTS of wave action and surf in the same area, click here

...was a storm brewing out there beyond my sight?  The tide was in because no sandy beach was showing.  The clouds at the horizon were heavy. But the Navy Pilots were still up and training. Notice in the cloud, the dark spot? And, through the plant growth, you may miss it...look closer, a plane. That is a trainer...

By the way, once a trainer passes their flight time at NAS Corpus Christi, they then move to NAS Kingsville and train on jets...eventually learning to land on aircraft carriers.  [or so I was told]

...at the edge, among the pebbles, a wild sponge floated ashore...

After getting my step total in for the day, I got back in the car and turned around on the road back the way I came. Driving about 100 yards or so, I almost hit a Royal Tern....laying, like it was in shock. I pulled over after swerving to avoid hitting it with my tires, and stopped. Perhaps, I thought "It flew in front of a vehicle, and was stunned". I talked with it, it blinked, it was still alive. Instead of leaving it there in the middle of the road, I picked it up gently and moved it off the road, laying it on a green patch of seaweed. I petted its head, said "I hope you'll be okay little fella", and left it there. Better than having it crushed under a car!!!! If it were dying, at least it will not suffer any more pain that it already had. The next morning, Bud and I drove back and checked it out....no corpse, no sign...hopefully it did well after a brief rest on the cool seaweed and took off to fly another day.

§ In the Company of Kings!

Texas State Historical Markers

One day, recently, it was a beautiful day. The morning was cool [for South Texas] and the sky was an indigo blue with cotton ball clouds! I hopped in the car and drove to Kingsville, Texas. Kingsville is named for Richard King and the King Ranch. The ranch land stretches from the outskirts of Corpus Christi through several counties south...from the Gulf of Mexico west through other Texas counties....covering nearly 900,000 acres...over 1200 square miles!  I stopped at Bishop, Texas along the way and walked the small town park and back through the creek bottom in search for birds.  I spotted egrets, herons, kingfishers, whistling ducks, and a couple of lark sparrows.

At Kingsville my first stop was the ranch's visitor's center.  They have lots of history books, several feeding stations for birds, etc.  I walked the center's grounds and only saw doves...I was hoping to see the Texas's Green Jay, but it wasn't in the books.  Oh, but I saw some long horn cattle!!!

Another breed of cattle started by the King Ranch [recognized by USDA in 1940], origins of mixing Brahman and Short horns in 1918,  is the Santa Gertrudis -first photo- and a Longhorn -second photo-


A Longhorn and the original King Ranch Chuck Wagon



A man made brook at the Visitor's Center


A replica [?] of a ranch bunk house



The Flying "W" is the King Ranch Brand and looking out on the ranch land for as far as you can see!

Kingsville is also home of the United States Naval Training Base...once the pilot trainers graduate from Corpus Christi NAS, they move on to Kingsville NAS to train flying jets...

After about an hour there, I drove to Dick Kleberg [Dick Kleberg was a son-in-law of Richard King] Park.  Woodpeckers, shrikes, and gulls were the only species there...I continued to walk raising my step count before returning home...

§ By the shores of....

...Gitche Gumee? Nah....here in the Coastal Bend acutally!

Many times, I've mentioned here and on my bird photo blog about an area just outside the 'skirts' of the city, along the intercoastal waters of the Gulf ...the area is Oso Bay. For the most part, the bay is salt water, mixed with canal water from several outlets from around the city. Mostly canals and drainage from irrigation creeks. During the summer months it's quite dry. The landscape changes dramatically and the mudflats created by the high use of irrigation arise in the 'bay'. Hence, you're able to walk along the banks [traipse through mud quite often] and peruse the shores with your binoculars at all the bird life. Surrounding the bay inlet, there are two trails. On one side, an adjacent park with a short boardwalk and observation decks and a trail that winds along the Ennis Joslin Rd along the North side of the bay. On the other side, along Ocean Drive, there is a longer, paved trail that begins from the Gulf, to and around the back side of the TAMU-CC campus. [That's Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi]. But there is some history connected to this 'island'. Prior to, and during WWII, this peninsula [called an island, Ward Island to be specific] was where the original [and still very active] NAS Flight Training Center is. That's Naval Air Station. President George Bush [the older] trained here to be a Naval Aviator in the 1940s.

To cut to the background of my post, during the last couple of weeks Bud and I have frequented the area because of a special, rare, bird spotted in the area. And since the bird spotted is always too far for our binoculars to really get a good view [nearly 1/2 mile into the bay's center], we just began walking along the grassy area that borders the shore. We found a bit of history left behind!!!

The two of us figured by the location and the area's history, these are probably remnants of a foundation of perhaps barracks or a Gymnasium. Altho the site I found tells me it could be a number of facilities; perhaps hangars. The reinforced "I Beams" [the rusted metal with the "I" shape in the block is an I Beam] are encased in cement...clearly marked U S N

...as we walked along checking out all the different deterioration of some, I spotted more foundation work remnants of the air station...

Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Our World Tuesday

Several yards out in the bay, a Yellow Crowned Night Heron had just flown in and watched me watching it on some more naval base 'ruins'  Sorry it's a bit blurry, I was in a hurry to capture the image before it flew off at my presence.   Which it did almost instantaneously.
Normally, the water level covers this area and the remnants aren't visible....

linking to: Wild Bird Wednesday - Nature Notes

photos of aerial views of the NAS Corpus Christi are courtesy of Wikipedia via Google Image Search
...Read more history here and here