January 25 2012   3pm about 80 degrees

Ringed kingfisher

Sunday we went to Santa Ana Wildlife Preserve..  It is a beautiful place.  This is the walkway as you enter.

We didn't see much wildlife, but we still enjoyed the day.  

Of course, Neil is thinking he might see some birds in the spanish moss.

Laguna Atascosa is dedicated to trying to save the ocelot but at Santa Ana we are looking to maybe get a glimpse of a jaguarrundi which are here but seldom seen.

but we just didn't see much for wildlife except for this very friendly roseate spoonbill

Guess it is just too early to see anything interesting.

January 19, 2012   10 pm cst  70 degrees

Cardinal....I bet I got that one right!

We bought a yearly  pass to the Cameron County parks and we have been taking our lunch  on  nice days and going  to the park closest to us.  

That's one way to use a picnic table.

Tonight we took supper.  People have been telling us about this bait shop that has fresh shrimp but just look at the place.

Well, everyone says it is the best around  so.......

It is a family owned place and they do all the fishing so the first time we went there, they didn't have any shrimp....sold out.

.  They don't freeze any or buy from the stores so you always  get really fresh gulf shrimp.      Tonight we  got two dinners of 10 shrimp each, each a salad and fries, and bread............$10 total.

Sitting at the park, eating fresh gulf shrimp that really were good....... I didn't even have to cook..  Life is good.

Best not to go to the park on the weekends, tho.  Just look at the trucks with boat trailers that lined the road last Sunday and this is just the overflow from the parking lot.

I have been noticing how they irrigate the fields here    The fields are so huge...there are underground pipes and these valves which are hooked up to a sort of  soaker hose and the water just runs down these huge fields.  Neil  measured one field........it ran three miles along the highway.

I  don't know how they can get anything started with the number of birds that eat there.  We were riding along and scared up these redwing blackbirds......hundreds of them on the newly planted field.

I  don't know what it is about me and cemeteries, but I made Neil turn in to this one that we have driven past many times.  Kinda wish I hadn't  because this is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.  This section  is for infants and babies only, and along with the flowers, people have lovingly placed toys, little shoes, heartbreaking messages..  So very sad

On a happier note, this is Howies new friend, Cowboy.    Howie has not known how to play, but he  is  learning from Cowboy. 

Now here is a guy who is inventive.  He has that big load of lumber to get home, so he is putting it on his truck one at a time and each board is being nailed to the one beneath it at a place a little higher up than the previous one.  He is driving the nail all the way in  so each board is nailed twice and won't twist around.  Clever?  

These bags crocheted from recycled plastic bags by the ladies of Costa Rica are really nice  They are quite expensive tho...$38.  I'm all for recycling, cleaning up the beaches etc., but thats a little steep for my budget.

January 12, 2012  10 pm  45 chilly windy degrees

Green Jay

First off, I have to make some corrections and apologies.   That green heron I posted on January 4 lied to me about his name.  He is actually a reddish egret.  Also, the flying canvasbacks just happen to be redhead ducks.

Me bad.

Well, I am pretty sure there is no mistaking this roseate spoonbill

Today we went to Laguna Atascosa.  It was forecasted to be a clear warm day but it never got above 55 and there was a strong wind. 

We did see this poor dog on the beach there who was limping along and looking nervous.  Neil tried to get him to come to us but as soon as he tried, the dog ran off.  It is not uncommon to see abandoned dogs in Texas. 

Too cold and nothing moving at the wildlife preserve so we continued down to South Padre Island.  There is an RV park on the beach owned by Cameron County that is just awesome.

If you have the coinage, you can stay here all winter ...no time limits.  There are hundreds of spaces but these up next to the water are $650 a month.......utilities extra and there are no openings.  

As I said, it was windy .........you can see the whitecaps.  The flags advise that there is heavy surf, dangerous currents and venomous  marine life out there.

This huge statue looks over  the gulf and  is in memory of ships lost at sea.  Each of those foundation blocks has a plaque with  the name of a ship lost at sea.

We stopped in at the Sea Turtle Rescue but once again the cold weather meant that the tanks were covered to keep them warm and we could only see this one who was found on the lawn in front of a local hotel with several not-too-severe injuries.  .  He will be released when his wounds are healed.  He got hit by a prop from a boat, they think.

and this one that we have seen before.  He will be here always but soo well cared for.

The owner of this dog said  that she is half fox ( the wild kind) and half Shih Tzu.  She is so pretty and gentle

If you saw this building would you  think it is an armory or a warehouse or maybe even a prison?  It is the Rio Hondo High School.

  

Bet he works cheap.

January 8,2012 10 pm 66 degrees

Kestrel

Today we went to the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen ( a private military school for grades 8 thru 12 with  tuition fees just under $35,000per year)  to view the Iwo Jima memorial there

   It is the plaster working model used by the sculptor  Dr. Felix de Weldon to create the  more famous one in Arlington Va.  Yes, it is plaster, and yes it is the full size of 32 ft. tall........ not that much rain here and no freezing temps so with careful care it stays perfect in all details.  To me, it is even more compelling than the bronze because the matte green has a look of authencity to the uniforms and the detail is astonishing.

.   My eyes glaze over the minute history buffs start giving dates and generals and timelines, but  with as few dates and numbers as possible, the story of the taking of the island of Iwo Jima  is this:

The island of Iwo Jima is the nearest of the Mariannas to Japan (approx. 700 miles) .   The Us Government wanted  this island as a stopping off place about half way between Us bombing bases and Japan.  The orders  were to take Iwo Jima at all costs. Wake and Guam each took three days or less  to conquor so it was thought that 3 days would be enough to take Iwo Jima, also.  It took 36 days.


  The island appeared to be bare volcanic ash with a dead volcano at one end.   100 planes bombed the apparently bare island and then the Navy bombed and finally sent in landing craft.  They began landing without incident. There appeared to be no Japanesse left to fight.

Meanwhile, the former sulfur mining island of Iwo Jima was harboring 21,000 Japanese soldiers in more than 1000 connecting caves making a complete military base underground.   General  Kuribayashi, a samauri general whose family have been Samauri for over 600 years, commanded the island base .  Note : not the diaper wearing samauri of movies but samauri trained military men.)

 In order to inflict the most damage, Gen Kuribayashi waited one whole hour before he began bombing.  At that point the troops on the beach had no place to hide and no where to go.   The volcanic ash was too soft to even dig foxholes.  The only thing they could do was to try to move forward.  One soldier said it was like trying to run in the rain without getting wet.   By sundown American casualties numbered 4,220.
The landing started on February 19, 1945.  By February 23 rd a small American flag  was raised  on Mount Suribachiat one end of the island .    This was the first raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, but not the one made famous by  photographer Joe Rosenthal.

The Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, had decided the previous night that he wanted to go ashore and witness  the fight for the mountain. (Not the final fight for the island, just that end of the triangular island where the mountain is )   Their boat touched the beach just after the flag went up, and the mood among the high command turned jubilant.

Forrestal was so taken with the event that he decided he wanted the Suribachi flag as a souvenir. The news of this wish did not sit well with 2nd Battalion Commander Chandler Johnson.   The flag belonged to the battalion, as far as Johnson was concerned. He decided to remove it as soon as possible, and sent his assistant operations officer to the beach to scare up a replacement flag. As an afterthought, Johnson called after him, "And make it a bigger one."

This second raising of the flag is the famous photograph and the image that inspired the Iwo Jima statue.  Three of the five men  raising that flag died  within days of the photo.  In fact there were more Americans killed in that 36 day battle  than Japanese.  The Japanese troops never intended to survive.  They were to fight to the death and each soldier was expected to kill 10 American soldiers before he died.  

 Actually about 3,000 Japanese soldiers did survive, could not  bring themselves to commit suicide and hid in the many caves and tunnels, coming out at night to scrounge for provisions.  It seems unbelievable but the last two of these survivors came out in 1951 having survived about 5 years underground.

In 1968, the island of Iwo Jima was returned to the Japanese and in 1985 a joint memorial service was held  and  a plaque  presented with some message of peace and friendship.

To give some idea of the size of this memorial, the flag seen here is 12 ft by 16 feet.




The man in the front is Harlan Block, a native of Weslco, Tx.  He is buried here.

 It is very humbling to stand at that huge statue and know the story of these men.

 We saw this little cat at the museum here. One side of his face is very dark, the other brindle. What unusual markings!

We also saw this variety palm tree that we had not seen before 

It has little tiny .....I guess they are nuts like the nut that is showing them,  but they look exactly like miniature coconuts,

Diabetic shoes?  Sweet!

January  4, 2012  10\ pm cst   65 degrees

Green Heron

We met these ladies from Oklahoma at a local park the other day and they were telling us about a place they had been in Port Isobel that they thought so interesting.   I couldn't wait to go and see it.  The next day  was cool  and rainy but  we just wanted to see this  Sea Life Center.

We were thinking it would be as interesting as the Turtle Rescue Center but were we ever disappointed.

Here is a sign on brown paper  taped to a fish tank

 This is what they were calling a touch tank... a shallow sink with hermit crabs that you may touch.

There were maybe 10 of these little aquariums. 

We  thought it a wasted day.

It occurs to me that every time I blog, I talk  about a rainy or cold day . We do have nice ones too.

Canvasbacks in flight

Yesterday was a beautiful day in the low 80s so we went to a local park about 7 miles from here to see what the fishermen  and the birds were doing.

  Since it was a good day for the fishermen, the pelicans were happy also.  They know  where to find a  free meal. 

 The men were cleaning fish and they had a waiting cleanup committee who fought over the  scraps.

  I must have taken 50 frames of these pelicans fighting over the fish and then the gulls joined in

 and it amuses me that in the end, a cagey  gull got a portion of it but some of the pelicans went hungry.

If  was a good day for the pelicans and gulls, it was a better day for this fisherman and when I asked him if I could take his picture with his catch, he was all smiles.  

 I believe he said these are redfish and trout.  I hope that is right.

Billboard for a hustler