§ ...There's no place like home...

Forecast predictions over the weekend were mild and sunny. NOT. At least in the early morning hours of our Sunday. We decided to go over the Harbor Bridge and stop at the only K-mart nearby. Long ago, before Christmas even, I had purchased a new bedspread combo for our extra bedroom. I have been wanting to repaint and change the color scheme in that room for months. And, with the bedspread combo came a need for new curtains. I thought that they'd be an easy match for the blue that is the main color on the spread. I was wrong in that assumption. I've been carrying with me for quite a while, a piece of thread from the new bedding to match with curtains, and I don't want to buy online 'cause the blue won't be the same once it's delivered to the house. I know that, I can feel it. So, I've gone to Bed & Bath, Marshall's, Target, Wal-Mart, T J Maxx, Penny's and probably others. Nothing. Yesterday, with K-Mart in mind, we stopped to walk the birding/hiking trail at Sunset Lakes in Portland, Texas. As we crossed the bridge, going over the ship channel, a cloud burst happened....heavy rain...then, by the time we got to the causeway, the sun was out, shining brightly. No more rain. We walked, I was watching for birds of course, but also watching the horizon where the intermittent showers were occurring over the city skyline. Half way through our walk, I looked over the trail and saw a line of heavy wet heading our way!!!! And it came quickly! We both got soaked to the skin. Too busy, I was watching the horizon and not paying attention to what was directly above us at the time.


North Shore...in the far distance [to the right] you can see the Harbor Bridge...


...the bridge disappears with the fast moving squall!!


...then...All's quiet on the Eastern Front!!!


After our soaking, I went into the port-a-potty and changed my wet clothes to dry ones. We always have a spare outfit in the car's trunk. We're birders...we know that things like a surprise storm can hit at any moment. And our extra clothes [and shoes] come in handy!!!

A few of the birds we saw here in our short, but wet walk:



If I were a bird tour guide, I'd tell my followers that there are several different species of egrets. But, only one with yellow feet!! And to use a memory/association technique...the phrase when you were young..."Don't Eat Yellow Snow"...hence, the SNOWY egret. The egret with the yellow feet!!



At K-mart I found the perfect blue to match. Go figure. Sheer curtains like I had pictured, the softest pale smoky blue....now I need to take the thread I've been carrying around with me to pick out a paint color to match. Bud's gonna do the rolling and I'll do the paint brush at the baseboards and ceiling lines. Should be an easy task. Except for moving furniture around. Ugh!! [I'll take it easy...or I will have the wrath of Bud down on me!!!]   Giving time for Bud to peruse his passion [the book shelves in the store], I walked around and ended up in the garden shop...found this...somehow it came home with us.  It goes well with our nautical kitchen/dining room.  Last night, I lighted it up and it played such a symphony of wonderful shapes and shadows on the ceiling---



Unlit - Lighted

Ceiling "Art" from the nautical glass floater -the globe light

This morning, early, we drove to Tule Lake near the oil refineries. The last time we were in this area, the lake itself was nearly dry. Today, not so much!! It was quite a bit filled. But nearly deserted with bird life. There are two covered gazebo platforms for us birders and each of them, we found in the rafters, Barn Swallow nests. The parents were busy keeping them fed...

Since there wasn't much activity at this spot we drove a piece up the interstate and turned toward Kingsville, Texas. We stopped at a county park in Calallen, Texas and drove around the park's twisted, winding park road. Again, no activity on the lake or the river!

We headed home...where I finally finished the library/computer room Spring Cleaning....the window - the last tidbit of a 3 day cleaning for the room!! Scrubbed the venitian blinds, the glass panes, and polished the window sill...the room is cleaned for another year. Reason I did this one? About a week ago, I reached back to unhook the computer's modem and my hand went through WEBS!! Yikes!!! Time to get off my butt and get this place cleaned out. Done. Done, done!!!

§ Reflections of Springtime in Texas!

Awwwwww, Spring! Nothing could be finer. Well, maybe Autumn. But that is a close 2nd when it comes to welcoming the newness and awakening of a new, fresh season. The deep blue skies, the new births everywhere...be they animals or crops 'springing' up in the rich, black soil around here. The cotton plants are nearly 6 inches in height already in the fields!! Or maybe some newly hatched chicks or the bird life all around busying themselves; building new homes. It's such a glorious time of year. On our short daytime excursions here and there, I am seeing all kinds of 'new' delights that refreshes and brightens my day. I went 'shopping' for photo opportunities from fences, macros, beautiful Spring skies with a threat of Spring rains or a deep indigo with happy clouds, Spring colors of yellow and green. Oh and anything newborn. I found all I was shopping for and share. Wanna come along?...

Reflection of a Snowy Egret

A beautiful sky!

A couple of NEWBORNS

"Auntie Santa Gertrudis and Nephew Calf"  Her calf is hidden behind Nephew

Mama & Baby Girl

Closeup of Redhead Ducks & a Blue Winged Teal

Pond from Rainwater

Prairie Wildflowers

Multiple Fencing

Ranch & Fencing...Pond & Northern Shoveler Ducks in Flight

...and we didn't have to leave home to find more Springtime Goodies. In fact, in our own back yard. Coming to a post soon...

JUST SOME RANDOMS:

ONE: “And the Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”

― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

TWO: If you have Windows 8 version...or later [I think there is a Windows 8.1] and you like the program but detest the "Charms Bar" when you move your mouse over to the far right side of your window monitor...I finally figured out a "fix" to rid myself of the annoyance. LOL

Here's how:

Right click on the taskbar [the active bar that is at the bottom of your window...the bar that has the date, time, volume, etc ---

Find Properties. Click on Properties. When that opens, click on the "Navigation" Tab. You'll then read "Corner Navigation". Scroll down just below 'corner navigation' and check the radio button "When I point to the upper right hand corner, show me the Charms Bar." Once that is checked, click "Apply" and then "Okay". Done. Simple. And no need to mess with the registry!!!

No more charms sliding in if you move your mouse around. Except when you WANT it...clicking on the upper right hand corner of your monitor.

THREE: My recent read is entitled Holy Fools; of which I'm about half way through. Written by Joanne Harris who also wrote a good story and made into a movie:  "Chocolat". Her words flow so easily and the storyline is light with a bit of mystery and charm of a world between a carnival act, a love affair, and a gal who bore a child out of wedlock to end up hiding out in an abbey in the 1600s. All the twist and turns in her young adulthood and the man she once adored comes to life with a longing to not put the book down so the pages keep turning. For her, and the leading man, it's a love/hate relationship that, for now, reveals much turmoil and high emotions.

FOUR: Wednesday last I had a follow-up appointment with my cardiologist. I will schedule an appointment with the ER surgeon in three months following my doctor's request/suggestion. The EKG performed this past week showed well. There have been no complications and I feel good. Exercise is still limited, travel should continue to be short trips...no flights for now. But, after the 3 month visit I should get a 'go ahead' with life as normal as possible....if all goes as well as this past month.

FIVE: Soon, the sound of the cracking!! Contact between the ball from the pitcher's mound to the home plate!! Baseball season. I love baseball.

§ Hot Spots...

I'll begin my post with a bit of 'rubbish'...an old, and I believe abandoned, factory of some sort found along the "Old Brownsville Road" [not to confuse it with I-69 that is now used to get to Brownsville these days]....See the smoke stack? That's considered a hot spot, right? Even tho the heat has long been extinguished!!



Y'all know by now that I have a passion for photographing birds! And y'all know that we go often to some of the close-by areas. And y'all have seen several feathered photos I've shared here on this blog,  while a few of you  stop by to view the 'better' photos I take at I'd Rather B Birdin'. This time 'round I thought I would share some of the scenery at our favorite places to go birdin'. What we call hot spots!! ---

Hilltop Community Nature Center - this area is northwest from the city. Actually, considering, it is still within the city limits, but several miles from the downtown area and our home. Within the community there is a school for learning and also an historical one-room school house dated back to the days of Nuecestown, Texas c. 1860s - 1870s [once called this before Corpus Christi acquired the area into the city limit boundaries]. I posted about the school here, showing photos of the interior and exterior. Anyway, the community has a blacktopped trail that meanders through the heavy wooded area. Walking the entire paved surfaces, you probably walk about 3 miles...up and down hills. You can get a good work-out on a hot, very humid, summer's day, trust me. Along the trails you can find stops along the way for birding, exercising [outdoor equipment], playground equipment, ballparks, and a large picnic grounds with BBQ pits and smokers [for smoking cuts of meat] all under a covered veranda. Several covered gazebos can be spotted along the way for those who observe birds hidden in the oak, palm, and willow trees.

Oso Bay and Hans Suter Park has more picnic areas and a trail that goes in one direction through a wooded area to the bay via a boardwalk along a feeder channel that water birds love! At the end of the boardwalk there is a large observation deck that looks out into the bay where you see ducks, storks, spoonbills, egrets, herons, pelicans, cormorants and osprey. Among other birds at any given time. Going in the other direction of the trail, it covers a winding trail that ends near a residential area and children's playground. Heavily wooded. The passerines [perching birds like cardinals, woodpeckers, buntings, mockingbirds, etc.] can be found. This photo above is taken from the boardwalk area that ends at the bay's shore.

Pollywog Ponds is also northwest, along Interstate 37. There are three ponds. Well, let me rephrase that...when we first began trekking this area in hopes of finding birds, there were three ponds at one time...so to speak...but one was long dried up. This past 5 years with the extreme drought a second of the three ponds dried up completely. [But last week, when we were there, the city is filling the 2nd one with water now that the drought seems to be lifted!] So, during the last few years, only the largest of the three ponds remained filled or partially filled. Once again, this area is heavily wooded before you get to the ponds. The Nueces River flows at the edge of the largest pond just a few feet from the pond bank. Only a trail that circles around the pond separates the pond water from the river. All along the trail on the south side, there is a drainage ditch that is sometimes filled with a slow moving brook. In this area, you can see several water birds and during the two migration seasons...a whole slew of different migratory birds with the likes of kingbirds, flycatchers, kingfishers, migrating ducks, owls [if lucky!!], herons, ibis, peewees, chuck wills widows [kinda like a whippoorwill, but not!], buntings, orioles,  hawks, etc. This is one of my favorite areas because of the dark, heavily wooded area...so quiet and a road less traveled!! Oh...and this is the ONLY place so far I've seen a snake...a cottonmouth...swimming in the water.

Lakeview Park is within the city limits and only a few miles from home. It's a very family friendly park. The permanent residents here are ducks [including the muscovy ducks] and geese. But at some times during the migratory season, cormorants, egrets, warblers can be spotted. This too has been kept replenished with water from the city...the lake is formed only by fresh water and dries up easily if not for the city keeping it filled during the drought we've experienced.

Hazel Bazemore Park can be found in a little town about 25 miles [give or take a few miles] from Corpus Christi. Of course it too is north and west of the city [can only go north or west from town...otherwise if you headed south or east from the city of Corpus Christi you'd be in the Gulf!!] This park is home to the world renowned Hawk Migration path!! People from all over the world [but seriously, mostly locals] come here to watch the hawk migration. This year alone, the count from the expert counters dated Thursday October 2nd, [from Texas Birding News] - - hawks, eagles, kites, and osprey was "48,000 hawks came through on Monday between 8:30 and noon." I personally have been there during the migration counting [but not this year], and to watch high above the kettles of hawks flying overhead is phenomenal, BUT!!!---I can't fathom that any of this can really be an accurate count just for the fact that those that are counting....they click for each bird they view within their binocular range ---well, my belief is this- the whole idea of an accurate count can't be... just for the fact that these hawks and raptors are circling continually...how on earth can the count be a true total!!?!! Anyway this is the large Hawk Watch Platform. Within this area, there is a paved road that circles around with two ponds, the Nueces River, and another, smaller observation deck at ground level below the elevated hawk-watch platform. This year they also added a bird blind and hummingbird feeders galore, along with a new drip system for birds like Groove-billed Anis, mockingbirds, egrets, avocets, herons, ibis, kingfishers, warblers, osprey, caracara, anhingas, and more. Also seen here are white tailed deer if you're lucky to spot them!!

Blucher Park is a small park just a couple of blocks from the seawall in the downtown area of Corpus Christi that is a migratory haven! Both in Spring and Autumn. The Audubon Society holds a Springtime tour for the avid birders on each Sunday during the month of April. This is a phenomenal little area for about any bird you want to see. Eventually they all show up.

Paradise Pond was a beautiful eye-opening treasure when we first moved here to Texas!! A boardwalk takes you through the pond...years ago, it was like walking on water! The pond was filled. Turtles, herons, egrets were permanent residents. A lot of nesting was going on for sometime. It's a good area for migratory woodpeckers also. But then, something happened.   The once beautiful, pristine water park dried up.  I had to ask about this, and find out why.... Only two drip systems remained. A lot of birds disappeared. But, this drying up was caused by man, not drought. Port Aransas and the Parks Department wanted to drain the water, let it dry up, and then go in and dig up, dispose of, one plant that became all too invasive to the trees and plants that are indigenous to the area. The trees and plants of south Texas were suffocating and dying out because of the pepper plant!!  Finally, after a three year dry spell, they are now slowly refilling the pond....filling it so much, then stopping the water flow until the ground is good and saturated, then opening up the water valve again.  This process will take some time...but  maybe real soon, the pond will be back to 'normal' and the migrants will return, happily.

Port Aransas Birding Center [aka Leonabelle Turnbull Nature Center] is another hot spot for the local bird enthusiasts! During migration the amount of different warblers seen is extraordinary. But, being a novice photographer, warblers can be quite a challenge to get a decent picture of them!!! Seriously, they don't sit still long enough most times to focus on them before they flit to another tree, or tree branch. But, walking toward the pond seen in this photo, you'll see all kinds of waterfowl year 'round! Some that aren't year 'round residents would be the likes of the Magnificent Frigatebird and the American Bittern along with luck you may see the elusive Least Bittern. Migratory ducks like the Cinnamon Teal, and the American Shovelers, blue winged teals, canvasback, etc. can be found in certain seasons. But the egrets, herons, stilts, coots and seagulls can be seen always.

These, above, are just the areas we frequent weekly; during the month. All within a short distance drive from home. There are some other areas that we try and get to during migration but farther driving time....Rockport Texas, Kingsville Texas, Bishop Texas, Alice Texas, Goliad Texas, Victoria Texas, Falfurrius Texas. Not to mention the entire Gulf of Mexico shore around our area, along the dunes and beaches. Oh and another favorite winter area...Goose Island near Lamar, Texas. Very infrequently some great birding along the coastal trails we travel to Brownville Texas, McAllen Texas and Edinburg Texas....and the Hill Country near Austin and Marble Falls. But the latter three are more than a day trip.

In an upcoming post, I plan to share some of the flora seen on these birding walks when the bird spotting is sparse to nil. Hopefully sometime soon.

Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Nature Notes - Our World Tuesday

§ Cotton Harvest ...and a Bit of History

Quite a few weeks ago, I showed photos of some of the cotton fields seen around the outskirts of the city. Well, they've all been harvested by now, and the fields are plowed for the next growing season. I've seen cotton bales just within the last two or three weeks...but, nothing like you see from yesteryear. They're baled in rolls now-a-days and wrapped in yellow plastic for protection from the elements before hauled and shipped out through the railroads and/or ships in the harbor....

Near Chapman Ranch, about 20 miles from Corpus, the area still has a standing and operating Cotton Gin. We've driven by it many times while heading toward Kingsville, Texas and farther south. But that isn't my post today. Remember when I posted a photo of a Quonset Hut? Behind that hut, by several hundred yards, I spotted a building of galvanized material that resembled by shape, a cotton gin. Right in the middle of a busy street!! I couldn't get it out of my mind. I searched the internet with local interest and found nothing on the history of the area. Then, one day while perusing our local newspaper online, I come across Corpus Christi in History...and clicked on it. There, in the annals of some articles, was an advertisement under the job listings...dated: circa late 1940s early 1950s [I can't recall the exact date]. It was an advertisement for jobs at a cotton gin....on what is now a city street here in town that I saw what I thought was an abandoned gin at the time of photographing the Quonset Hut!!! The address in the ad told me I was correct in assumption. I just had to drive back and try and get some photos while still not trespassing. All that much. lol

I pulled the car into a parking lot across the street from the Quonset Hut...grabbed my camera and crossed the street. I first took photos from the sidewalk, using my zoom lens. Then, either stupidity or bravery grabbed my psyche and I walked beyond the sidewalk, between the Quonset Hut and a large shed, then snapped a few more photos. By the time I took two or three photos I began leaving as quickly as I could, and behold...a city worker was mowing the high grass from the sidewalk! With the mowing, he helped me out somewhat, revealing an OLD railway track! I took photos of those tracks, still well hidden in the freshly mowed grass.  I'm really surprised I didn't trip and fall on them beforehand, and would still like to know the history of this particular cotton gin....

The Chapman Ranch Historical Marker
South Texas Cotton Gins
King Ranch - a Fortune Made Smuggling Cotton!






Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Nature Notes - Our World Tuesday

cotton bale image courtesy of Google Image search

§ Up on the Rooftop...

Walking the new Oso Bay Hiking/Biking Trail last weekend, I zoomed in on the top of this old horse barn's roof top that was jutting out above the trees. When I got home,  I realized the cupola was in rubbish form...

☼ ☼ ► ► ◄ ◄ ☼ ☼

A couple of weeks ago, while I was sitting out on the patio, watching the hummingbirds now that they're on their way south for the winter and stopping by here in South Texas for a break to fatten up for their long journey, I walked around and took some photos of what I find in our back yard. From flowers, bushes, tree insects, to fun figurines. Mouse-over captioning - scroll mouse over image, pause and text will show...

Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Nature Notes - Our World Tuesday