§ Sunday Monring Silence...

This morning, Sunday, I woke up to a cloud-covered sky! Yipee, that meant there was a front that moved in and perhaps, even tho the humidity would still be high, at least it wouldn't be blistering outdoors; walking! A least as long as the clouds didn't break and then clear out. Please stay cloudy or at least partly cloudy long enough for me to get my 10K steps in....Outdoors!!! Yay!!

I decided I didn't want to drive far; no island hopping for me today. I just drove to Oso Bay Wetlands that is about 10 minutes from home. It's all open area, mostly chaparral with cactus, mesquite trees, a small bay inlet, several elevated decks for nature lovers and birders. I like this place on a quiet Sunday morning. It's one of my favorite local spots. Best thing about it is ... it's ALL Pedestrian. In other words, NO Bicycles!!! They are prohibited. And several paths to choose, covering miles of area. I try to walk about 90% of them on my outing.

The parking lot for the park is gated. And on Sundays they remain locked. Which is okay by me. I just park on the street, by the gate and go through the entrance on foot and begin my journey. Trust me, I was happy to be outside and enjoying the sea breeze and the lack of heat. Well, to you northerners it's still hot, but 79° felt mighty fine. No triple digits today. Not even the heat index.

On my walk-about, here's what I saw at the Wetlands on the Bay:  From aquatic plants and water lilies, to furry wildlife [a cottontail rabbit], birds such as doves, thrashers, black bellied ducks flying overhead, a painted bunting taking off from the treetop, the sun shortly shining but hidden by more cloud cover,  a Willet in flight just above the swamp grass, trail greenery, a new boardwalk along the bay side, a flycatcher high above me taking flight across the power line spindle, a snowy egret perched near low-lying cattail reed.  

I walked in this area for a couple of hours.  Upon returning to my car, I spotted two Scissortailed Flycatchers [birds], and they had a nest on a power pole!!!  With ONE baby in it that I spotted.  I stood and watched them for some time while taking photos of the activities for my bird photo blog, and then finally left for another park before heading home.  I was so enjoying the day!! 

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CONNECTING TO:

§ Birds of a Feather

One of our 'favorite' places to go walking/and hopefully lucky enough to go birding is on Mustang Island about 25 minutes' drive from Corpus. It's called Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. To find the area, just head on down the highway from the JFK Causeway to North Padre Island and turn at the first traffic light of arrive on another island [Mustang Island] and then head to Port Aransas. Once in the fishing village, turn left on the FERRY EXIT and there is a "Y" in the road where off to the right, you'd head toward the ferry landing. The left turn from the "Y" on the road will take you to the Birding Center. Park, and walk a short distance to the tidal basin. Here, there is a board walk through the reeds and cattails to come to an opening and the basin. A short few yards' walk and you come upon an elevated viewing tower, three flights up - or continue walking on the board walk with a couple of walk-outs for viewing and setting up your tripod if you're a camera enthusiast. This time, we stopped and watched the pelicans and cormorants and a few herons...


Local Starbucks Meeting; same clientele [cormorants] ...


I see you, but you can't see me....right?


Greetings Earthling!....


From the one stop coffee break above, to Dunkin' Donuts...


...more Dunkin' Donuts - jelly filled this time!


So long...earthling!!


- - -

WEEKEND FUNNIES


1] A man brings his wife a glass of water and two aspirins. She looks surprised and says, I don't have a headache!" He says, "Aha!"

2] An Arab diplomat visiting the U.S. for the first time was being wined and dined by the State Department. The Grand Emir was unused to the salt in American foods (french fries, cheeses, salami, anchovies etc.) and was constantly sending his manservant, Abdul, to fetch him a glass of water. Time and again, Abdul would scamper off and return with a glass of water, but then came the time when he returned empty-handed. "Abdul, you son of an ugly camel, where is my water?" demanded the Grand Emir. "A thousand pardons, O Illustrious One", stammered the wretched Abdul, "white man sit on well".

3] And remember this: "I DO NOT GAIN WEIGHT - I'm just a METABOLIC UNDERACHIEVER."

§ Oso Bay - on New Year's Day

Wind is howling, and the temps are cool around 8 a.m. - a couple of times with the gusts at 35MPH, I had trouble holding the camera steady. But---

Walk this way. Take a stroll with me along the bay [Suter Park]...

through the woods and over the boardwalk...


Suter Park


Oso Bay


See what I see [all within a time range of twenty minutes' walk to the bay area] ---


Great White Egrets


Great White Egret


Great White Egret


3 egrets [right] Black Crowned Night Heron [left]


Wildflowers near the boardwalk


Yucca plant in shadows [Suter Park]


Wildflowers near boardwalk


Black Cormorant


Ducks, seagulls, and white pelicans


In foreground [red beaks] Black Skimmers, white Pelican, seagulls, ducks, heron and stilts [pink legs/feet]


Great White Egret


Black Crowned Night Heron


Great White Egret


Blue Heron


Ducks and Cormorants


Ducks, White Egrets, and Roseate Spoonbills


Great White Egrets

Note: There are Great White Egrets [similar: white cattle egrets are smaller and more 'buff' in color, usually spotted inland and not around salt water] and Snowy Egrets in this area ---the difference is the color of the beaks...yellow= Great White - black= Snowy.


- - -

HODGEPODGE

1. What are three words you would use to describe your 2011? LONG HOT SUMMER

2. Do you like shrimp? What's your favorite way to have it prepared? I LOVE SHRIMP...butterflied, and deep fat fried. Gulf Shrimp are the best in the world. Sweet, huge, tender...mmmmmmm!!!

3. Is your house de-Christmased? If so when did you tackle that job? If not, when will the decorations come down? It's all done. The job was tackled for the week following Christmas. I got into the habit of 'de-Christmasing' when the kids were home, they'd help and we'd have it done before it was time to go back to school and work. The tradition stands, albeit without the kids.

4. Do you like to watch scary movies? I love scary movies!! Some that will have you on the edge of your seat and jumping with all the spooky, startling, unexpected. SPREAD THE JELLO. [if you don't know the comedy routine by Bill Cosby, about scary stuff and jello...listen to it here -CHICKEN HEART it'll have your rofl - PART ONE & PART TWO] part 2 is the 'scary' part.

5. ice skating~sledding~skiing~snowboarding~of the four listed which wintertime activity do you most enjoy? Well, I am not a winter person when it comes to this and nasty cold, snowy weather. But if I must choose one, it'd be ICE SKATING...and that is watching it on ESPN/Olympics, etc.

6. Did you have a childhood hideout? Describe it. Oh yes...but it was only a weekend hideout. What you say? A weekend hideout? Yep. You see it was at my grandparents' farm. They had a huge farm...and a three story farm house. But it wasn't even near the house...My grandfather gave me and my dad some lumber...there was an irrigation ditch...trees lining on a hilly knoll. It'd take about a half hour to walk there when I was a child. My dad built me a tree house near the ditch. When I would go there for the weekend, I would get crackers and a Ball™ jar with water from the ice house, a blanket ---and go to my own "Picnic Mount" being that the tree house was atop the hill. It was very primitive...but MINE!!

7. What's a place or space that motivates you? Tons of 'places' and 'spaces'...it really depends on where, the mood. A good book gives me a space that I'm motivated to research or turn the page...a movie can motivate me, an idea for a craft project, a crochet pattern, a seasonal time of year, for instance a beautiful clear sunshiny day in Spring...the beach, family members, day trips, seeing a different bird while traveling along the bird trails...gardening...too many things to narrow it down to just ONE place or space.

8. Insert your own random thought here. It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost, and blamed it on the cost of living.

§ a rerun....

Busy day for me on a new project which I hope I'll explain a bit on my Sunday's summary. For today's post I'm going to repost a blog entry I posted in January of last year. Probably some of you'll remember it, but honestly I have very little time online.......




At Aransas Wildlife Refuge along the coast of Texas, about 80 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, we had a good outing, bird watching, and other activities in more ways than one. [the first 15 photos have mouseover captions] We crossed Copano Bay near Rockport Texas [which is kinda like crossing to Key West Florida...only MUCH shorter in distance. Water on both sides of the highway! We continued heading in the north easterly direction to the refuge. I was in hopes of being able to view the Whooping Cranes that migrate here to the coast each and every winter, like clock work. This year, there are a reported 240+ cranes that have arrived. The Refuge is their breeding grounds. Once we arrived, we signed in and walked around the visitor's center that has many displays of the birds in the area...[world renowned for bird watchers]...and the four footed wildlife that co-exists with area's waterfowl. After the few minutes registering and viewing the indoor exhibits, it was time to hop in the car and drive the 16 miles of roadway meandering through the swampy marshlands [the whole sanctuary/park/refuge is vast....some 115,000 acres of land area, not including the expanse of water inlets and shoreline and gulf bays --most only accessible by chartered boat] in hopes of realizing our purpose of the day trip.....









"Alligators in the sewer"....she was such a doll back then. Drew Barrymore that is. I adored her as a child, I admire her spunk and fortitude now that she's grown. Not to mention I think she's the best looking Barrymore ever. Oh yes, I remember her grandfather, John, and her uncle, Lionel. Among others of the Barrymore dynasty. With her 'breakthrough' role in E. T. as Gertie, in 1981!!!....her little bod and adorable charm of a youngster, well, she melted my heart. And I still catch myself saying -alligators in the sewer- oftentimes. In fact just the other day!!!

You see, we walked miles. We drove through the entire area where you can park your car at certain observation points. And climbed the tower...but to no avail. We did however see many other birds and some beautiful countryside. Spoonbills, hawks, egrets, herons. Why, even a ROBIN!! Which, in all honesty, I've NOT SEEN since Colorado! I always knew that Spring had arrived when the first robin of the season sang its lullaby. It was a real treat to see one again. And I must say, the one we saw in Texas IS bigger....the saying is true....things in Texas are big! hehehehe All in all it was a very pleasant day. We spent about four hours there once we arrived. As we were driving back to the visitor's center to sign out [you have to register when you enter the reserve]. As we drove the paved road through the park, ummmmmmm.......Watch out!! Alligators' on the loose!!!!!

By the time I got the car pulled off the road he had reached the swamp!!




...and he had his eyes on me too. All the time I was there with the camera!! If he had turned and chased me....he'd still be slipping in my----!!!

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