Travels with Howie

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.