March 22, 2020

 The shelves  at our Walmart where there should be cases cases of water, soda, etc.

And these are the empty freezer shelves.


  The Corona virus has caused so much panic that there is  a  big shortage of food in the stores.

We are asked to stay home to prevent the spread of the disease so no travel  and no photographs for us  this week.

Also, tomorrow I go to the hospital to have my left knee  operated on (total knee replacement) so I will be unable to get about for even longer than  the week, so I guess I will not be ;posting again for some time.

Thanks for reading my blather.  be back soon, I hope.

March 10,2020

I have never seen a stranger looking bird than the Roseate Spoonbill and I am sorry that I don't have a better photo than this to show you.  Sometimes we see one or two on  a small pond  but yesterday we saw these on a strip of land in the middle of a large area of shallow water.  They are a really ugly bird up close but from a distance, the bright pink color is so pretty.  Up close you can see  a large patch of yellow around the eye,  white neck, black on the back of the head and grayish bill with some darkish  stripes on a bill  that looks like someone pounded  it flat.    They really look like a small  child  designed and colored them


Image from the internet..the rest are my photos

Anyway,  it occurred to me to  write a little about peculiarities of some of the birds that I have photos of.  I know, that is ending a sentence with a preposition.😧

  

White Ibis.  Legend says it is the last to leave before a hurricane strikes and the first to return.  Some also believe that it can withstand the winds of a hurricane.         

The golden fronted woodpecker can eat prickly pear cactus.  Sometimes his face is stained a light purple from it.

Cattle egrets eat insects and can  get 50%  more food and use 2/3 less energy by following cattle and sort of cleaning up  the insects in what remains in the path .   A group of egrets can be called a stampede of egrets.  Seems inappropriate.

Great Blue  Heron:  he has some special feathers on his chest that he combs with a sort of fringed claw.  He uses the feathers he has combed off to clean himself from the slime of the fish and other unpleasant stuff.  He/she also has a special  way of incubating  their eggs by standing on them to keep them warm.

I grew up in a time when it was thought that only man used tools but since that time we have learned that a number of animals do use them including this green jay who sometimes uses a twig to pry bark  loose to get insects underneath.

And finally:a Cardinal.

  There is a saying that if you see a cardinal you are seeing a representative of someone who has passed .  They show up at times when you most miss them or need them. 

I'd like to believe that.

March-3-2020

                                                 This is Big Padre

He is 12'6"

He lived in Port Arthur living the life......waiting for the fishermen to throw the entrails of the fish they had caught overboard.

 Until one day, Padre saw a boat come in and he rested his head up onto the side of the boat.  It wasn't an aggressive act but a friendly begging episode.

 Unfortunately  it was a visitor to the area and the fisherman, understandably concerned, reported the incident.  

So the alligator had to be taken away.... but lucky for him, he was taken to the Padre Island Bird and Wildlife Center which is where I photographed him.  

The good people  there saw that all those days of easy food had gone to his waist and as a result they have the poor devil on a diet and they tell everyone about it...how embarrassing.

  The food police are everywhere!

.

New this year are some Tortoises  at the Wildlife Center.

I read that they like greens and other veggies and occasionally some meat but should not be fed every day.  Skip maybe one or two days..  Some species can even go for 2 years without food!

So why does the wildlife place sell  leafy greens to any visitor that wants to feed  the tortoises but visitors  are not to feed  poor 12 foot  6 inch long Padre the alligator ?

What would you title this next pic?  Tag, Your it?  Git off my rock?

See how the top one appears to be smiling and the bottom one looks very angry?

I called it bullygator.  Or unhappy marriage

I have seen on TV floats like this called dangerous because they  tip over easily in the wind.  Also if the wind takes them out a ways in the water, there is no way for children or anyone for that matter  to bring them back in without getting out of the thing and haul it while swimming.

So, I was surprised when I saw these two floats at the beach today.  It was a windy day as most are here in southern Texas in the winter.  I watched, hoping nothing bad happened.

sure enough, both floats tipped over and both children are in the water with mama trying to right the floats and help the kids.  They took the floats back to the beach.

Good idea

This is Neil standing next to a Texas sunflower.  The blossoms are not what you think of as sunflower..they are much smaller, but the plant can get very tall.  Neil is about 5'10".  Fallow fields can be loaded with these, it's pretty even if the blossom is not as big..

Life explained