§ Polly-nators & Dew-drop Inn...

...at POLLYwog ponds and along the seashore







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...the above white trumpet blossoms looks like this before opening fully....



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§ Part of Charlie's Pasture is open again.

After the flooding in town and along the other coastal areas from last week, I decided to drive to the islands and check things out. A couple of my favorite areas to walk the boardwalks and trails didn't have much birding action, so I headed to the ship channel and Charlie's Pasture. Hooray!! The park road that follows the channel was open!! Partially. And there were warning signs all along the banks "Heavy Hurricane Damage, Proceed With Caution". The main gate to the pasture and boardwalk was locked tight...I got out of the car once I parked, and walked in. In all areas, I felt good getting out and about again! It seems like ages since I've actually totaled my step goal!!

This is some of what I saw...

Two Eurasian Collared Doves and Dragon Fly



Eurasian Collared Dove and Brown Pelican



Black Bellied Whistling Ducks and Many White Caps  on the Gulf



Fisherman on the South Jetty and look closely...a dolphin surfacing



Lydia Ann Lighthouse in Aransas Pass and my favorite trail at Charlie's Pasture..still out.



Part of Charlie's Pasture still inaccessible and a washed out trail.


Once home, I got creative and made cinnamon rolls!!  Fresh, hot cinnamon rolls.

§ This and That...

Just an eclectic post today. A bit of this, and some more of that. All animal life seen on our walks...

I've often posted photos of our fishing village on the island when we drive there for a morning outing. The other day, nice and sunny with a bit of a cool down from the summer's inferno, one of the two resident alligators was out and about. We had just talked to a couple who drove down here from Austin to do a bit of birding at the nature reserves and the man asked about the alligators "Have you ever seen them?" Of course I said we have on other days. Chatted a bit about how big they are, their distant calling sometimes, etc. But they were not to be seen at this time. Then, when Bud and I were up on the watch tower Bud noticed the female 'gator, Bags. We got the Austin couple's attention and they walked out on the pond level observation deck and watched Bags 'float by' at her leisure. I took pictures...



...my favorite this time is the ridges of her tail!!!

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About a week ago the Texas Bird Site I frequent told us here in Corpus Christi that the European Bar-tailed Godwit was back! Earlier by months, like early Spring, it was spotted and recorded as a 'first ever seen' in Texas! At the time it was morphing from its breeding colors to most likely the winter plumage. Well, this time around, upon its return to our area, it's in full Winter Plumage now. And much prettier. Or handsome if the case may be. And where it was reported seen this October it was at an area much much easier to see it...and no mucky bay mud to traipse thru! [The first time Bud and I went out to find it, it was along the shores of Oso Bay near the Naval Air Station, and the mud was quite a messy nuisance for us bird enthusiasts.] Of course I'll save the BEST photos for my bird photo blog, but I will show you this panoramic view. The one lone rare Bar Tailed Godwit is easy to distinguish from the birds of a feather it was foraging with...the MARBLED Godwits:

Can you find the Bar Tailed? It's pretty easily seen here...

Yep, the lighter, smaller, one to the far left. If you picked that one, you were right.

Now, I read a bit about them recently. Some come from Europe, others from New Zealand. But most of all, they're not supposed to be in Texas. Astoundingly, the Godwits fly from their breeding grounds in Alaska to New Zealand!!---NON STOP! For Eight days straight!! Birds continue to flabbergast me with their amazing stamina, intelligence, and feats of survival.

Again, later in weeks to come, I will post more and better photos of the individual Bar Tailed Godwit on I'd Rather B Birdin'. Just keep your eyes on the 'bulletin' above where I link each weekend a new bird series of photos.


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On another boardwalk, in another nature reserve park, I spotted this gecko [I believe it's a gecko anyway because of the extra long toes on a short stocky body. If I'm wrong, please correct me!]. It was clinging to a slat in the boards of the boardwalk...





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And still, more creatures of nature...



...seriously, this time of year with the late in the season rain storms we've had here and on the islands, the other day while driving to Port Aransas, it was like driving through a swarm of locusts in Nebraska countryside when I was a child! Our windshield played a bit of havoc tho...some didn't survive!! Everywhere we went the dragonflies were....well, everywhere!! I told Bud before we got out of the car to walk..."Don't open your mouth to talk, or you might have a lunch you didn't order!!"

Besides these beauties, there were orange ones, black ones, green ones and blue. I think the all red bodied one is the Scarlet Darter and the pink one is the Roseate Skimmer. Which is the male of the species...the roseate female is more brown. Also, as I followed their flight patterns through my zoom lens slowly in order to capture them after they landed, I think they can move [four wings] the fore and hind wings independently. Does anyone know this for a fact? It sure looked like it tho. I guess I shoulda set the camera on cam-corder and recorded their flight.

§ Wild Pink Yonder...

1] Pink/Red Sky in the Morning...

2] Have y'all heard the WEA cell phone emergency alert? We did, again, this past week.  It is like what you hear in old movies with the air raid siren going off? Y'know what I'm talking about, right? Well, the WEA [wireless emergency alert] has been amalgamated within the cellphones of reputable companies and part of the warning signals if necessary by our governments [local and national]. It was raining cats and dogs one day here and just didn't stop. At times, the downpour was very heavy and visibility was nearly nil! Water was collecting in the gutters around our home and the force and amount was flooding the streets and moving up the sidewalks and on to our yards. The WEA rings...then, immediately followed by a text message. Got me to thinking.........ya, it hurt.....but I was wondering just what it sounded like in a big, public, place like the mall where everyone has their phones turned on. Y'know? Or where y'all work...a big company, all phones on the employees desks...and then, all of a sudden, the Alert goes off!!??  We've had an Amber Alert a little over a year ago, but I don't recall our phones 'going off' on an alert tangent like this time.  Guess since I was concerned for our home being flooded;  I paid more attention. And on one of my phone app, we had several days and nights' warnings going off with the high tide coming in and the swells out in the Gulf creating the high tide to be even MORE- flooding the beaches to the DUNES....no camping; and beach access roads closed.

3] England is expecting [more so William and Kate] another royal heir!! News states they have a girl's name picked...Elizabeth Diana Windsor. This has a beautiful ring to it! I like it. Thing is, I hope if it is a girl, they don't call her by a shortened version - Princess Di. That seems a bad thing [not being disrespectful of Diana Spencer, just a bad omen from the past tragedy.] I'm sure tho, that the 2nd heir will be beautiful...look what genes she [he] will have. That Prince George is a doll. His sister or brother will be the same without a doubt.

4] Dragonfly Porn...



5] Mentioning again....I have set up a linking party for your Holiday Home Showcase for Autumn. I will add a link after I post my first one, here, sometime this weekend. All about Spiders and Creepy. It's such a fun time of year for me. If you care to share, or check it out, look just below my blog header. Then, click on the linked graphic.

linking to: Willy Nilly Friday 5 - Skywatch Friday - Camera Critters - Saturday Critters - I ♥ Macro

§ Nature's Weekend...

Note: I added the fourth week's Halloween Treat [shown above - just click on any/all and save]

NATURE NOTES & WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY

links of these memes on sidebar

The post today is of my two favorite subjects/days to post lately.....nature, birds and birding. Along with the challenge below, that is every Wednesday -- Hodgepodge! [that I post all at once on Tuesday of course] This time of year when Bud and I enjoy being outdoors after the insufferable summer temperatures and humidity...it's truly delightful. This past weekend, we did go to the three day, annual, Jazz Festival [which I'll share just a few photos taken with my cell phone, on Saturday]. Friday it was rainy and cold, so I cooked in the slow cooker a batch of chicken enchilada soup. Saturday was perfect for attending the outdoor festival. Sunday morning we drove to the islands and did a little birding. On the drive - Bud and I counted nine osprey on the JFK Causeway... over the sandy dunes [highway], we spotted hawks on the power lines [and two osprey] - at the birding centers, we spotted scissortail flycatchers, tennessee warblers, starlings, one lone osprey in the trees [a photo below], hooded warbler, white pelicans, spoonbills, ducks, egrets, cormorants, avocets, herons, sea gulls, terns, ibis---and a whole SLEW of humongous dragonflies [most of them mating, and no exaggeration that they were HUGE...size of a hummingbird!!!]. When we returned home, I started a crochet project [beginning photo shown below in Hodgepodge section] with some 2 ply yarn skeins I've had in my basket for a couple of years. I thought it was time to use it. LOL After dinner, I noticed a huge white 'fire ball' behind the silhouetted trees across the street when we shut down the garage door for the evening, and I realized it was the full moon that had just risen. I went indoors and grabbed the camera; by the time I was back outdoors, the moon had nearly made it to the tree tops; no longer hidden behind the thick tree canopies:

...after all the birding, we decided to sit down and pull out the Planet Earth™ DVD series, and watched a couple of the program segments, Forests and Oceans. I love these. They are narrated by Sir David Frederick Attenborough.




HODGEPODGE
links of these memes on sidebar




1. When it comes to good manners, what two top your list of most important? Excusing yourself after you've belched. LOL [I lived with a 'crude' man for months before he actually said "Excuse me". That was a feat for me to get him that far!!!] The 2nd...definitely respecting the elderly.

2. Let's open a proverbial can of worms...Common Core. Are you familiar with the term (talking education reform in the USA)? If so, care to share your thoughts? In your opinion, what is one of the biggest issues schools (in your home country) face today? Nope, not familiar at all....have no kids in school...or at home for that matter....but, the government wants their 'hands in everything...stay away from kids and let them learn without your influence and dictating!! Financing mostly, there are way too many classes dropped. And, what is it these days where the common structure of writing [cursive] is not even taught?!!!! OH...and I have a question: If the new way of teaching math is so good, then why oh why can't high school students make change for $1.00 in their heads? You purchase a pack of gum for $.86...the change should come automatically in their heads...but lord help us if the computer/registers are down!!!!

3. Name a celebrity whose fashion sense you admire and share why. None really!!! I say, just be yourself and don't 'ape' anyone's fashion!! ........ Like Miley Cyrus?!!! Oh lord...don't get me started on that.

4. How are you affected by the changing seasons? Well, I sleep better with a window open in the cooler seasons than when the air conditioning is on in the hot months.

5. Scariest book you've ever read? I would have to say: Cujo! [not only a horror BOOK, but a great movie also] -- and tho not 'scary' in a science fiction setting, the book "The Client" was intense. Scary in terms of the little boy who witnessed a suicide/crime. [Movie was nothing, compared to the thriller/book!]

6. What time of day are you most hungry? What's your go-to snack? Usually the lunch hour. I try to eat my 'biggest meal' by mid-day. It's a habit really. Snack? I love Nature Valley's Almond Salty/Sweet Almond Granola Bar.

7. Do you lean more towards being too needy or too independent? Which do you find harder to deal with in others? Definitely independence for me. There is a right way, a wrong way, and then there is MY way. Harder to deal with would be the 'needy'. Where there is a will there is a way.

8. Insert your own random thought here. As mentioned above in my nature/birding notes, I began a new crochet project. I tried this pattern a long time ago and didn't get it right after about 20 rows or so and gave up. I'm starting again. So far, so good....