2.25.2010 Doug's last softball game

Here are some photos of Doug's last softball game today. He will miss the playoffs next week because we are heading to San Antonio on Sunday. Next year, we'll plan on staying down here until mid-March.














As the temps warmed up, Doug shed his sweat pants for his shorts. It was a beautiful day but the wind played havoc with the balls.

2.24.10 Yucca blooms - Port Isabel

We decided to take one more trip to South Padre Island today. It was a beautiful day... full sunshine, low humidity, clearing after yesterday's cold front and showers. We had seen lots of Yuccas in bloom on Saturday when we went to SPI so today we took the time to get some photos. They are such big beautiful blossoms.
Here are a few photos....

2.22.2010 - Can you name this raptor & Last time to fill the bird feeders

We were doing our last bird feeding today as we will be leaving here on Sunday. We kept hearing a hawk calling. I finally found him but until we got the golf cart turned around and the camera brought to life, all I got was a view of the underside of his rear end as he was ready to push off the branch..... So can you name this hawk from his underside rear?

There weren't many little birds out in the heat of the day... It was 80 degrees and quite warm. Last Monday when it was cool and cloudy, I took over 200 photos, but today it was just these two. On these warm days, it is a challenge to take down old citrus and put up new because the bees are all over the citrus. I left the citrus job to Doug today. ;-)

Doug has more softball games this week and then the play-offs which he will miss the following week. We did not know the schedule when we made our reservations so he tells me we need to stay down here next year until the first week in March so he can play in the playoffs and in the Can-Am Game - the Canadians against Americans. The loosers have to sing the anthem of the winners.

We are going to try to squeeze in one more trip to Progresso, Mexico and to South Padre Island on Wednesday. Friday and Saturday we will spend doing our final packing to leaving on Sunday. It is amazing how much "stuff" you can accumulate in 4 months of sitting in the same place! It is time to clean house and discard stuff we're no longer using.

2.20.2010 A Day on South Padre Island with our friends Tom and Judy

Yesterday we met our RV friends, Tom and Judy, at Port Isabel and had a delightful lunch at Pirate's Landing. Then across the causeway we drove to South Padre Island.

The Para-sailers were out as it was a beautiful sunny day with temps around 80 degrees. The above photo shows a para-sailer over the Laugna Madre (The body of water that is between the barrier island and the mainland) The Laugna Madre ranges from a few inches to a few feet deep. Below is a close up of the para-sailer as we crossed the causeway.



We parked Homer and our car at the Sheraton Inn (It is the twin towers in the first photo above at the very left edge of the photo) since they have a covered parking garage. Homer took a nice cool nap while we went to see the birds and the turtles.

The photo above is Tom looking out over the northern view of the Birding Center from the three-story tower. Below is the northwest view. It shows some of the boardwalks and blinds for bird watching.

Below is the view looking southwest over the Laguna Madre.


Above shows a zoomed-in view of one of the birding blinds and boardwalks.

We came down out from the tower and started out walk along the boardwalks. In the photo above, Doug, Tom, and Judy are checking out the fish in the water below the boardwalks.

Above is a view of the Birding Center. It shows the tower where we took the first several photos.

There were Hermit Crabs everywhere! Here is one in his hole.

A great blue heron hiding in some bushes.

Anyone know what this guy is above? Judy, our friend, emailed me last night and identified this bird as a Common Moorehen. Thanks, Judy!

Another great blue heron looking for dinner.

Since it was such a warm day, the one alligator was out taking a nap in the warm sunshine. When we were here in November, it was a cool day so we didn't see him. He is a youngster but as you can see from the close up views below, his teeth are quite developed.



In the above photo his eye is closed. In the photo below his eye is open. Check out those teeth.



The Roseate Spoonbills were resting together.

Then it off to the Turtle Rescue to see what was new there. All their turtles are ones which have been injured or are sick. They rehabilitate them and return 90% of them back to the wild.





The one above is "Miss Bubble Butt" - she has an infection that is causing air in her back end so she can't dive. They are hoping the antibiotics will cure the infection and allow her to dive again.



The Loggerhead in the photo above and below was definitely a people lover - He liked hanging around the window in his tank.


This guy below was just brought in the morning. He had gone through the dredging machine at the Mansfield Ship Channel and is in critical condition. His shell is cracked in several locations on his belly. In this photo, they had just gotten him out of his pool and were moving him inside the office where the intensive care ones are kept for the night.

Before we left the island, we took a ride through the state park campground and KOA campground. We had stayed for a month in 2006 at the KOA in our GMC motorhome when Doug was still working. Then as we were starting back across the causeway, I snapped the photo below. The fog was rolling in off the Gulf behind us and the sun was so low in the sky.

We have one more week here in Bentsen Palm before we head to San Antonio. We are going to do the drive on Sunday so we can visit with our PA neighbors, Mike and Kristie, who will be in San Antonio for their son, Kurtis' graduation from basic training. We're excited to see some Pennsylvanians.

Stop back again.... Our week will be busy cleaning up and reorganizing from four months of being parked in the same spot. We are itchy to get on the move again.....

Lots of birds on our feeding run 2/15/10

Monday was our day to fill the feeders at the birding center. It was the first that I had been out of the house in a week – I've been sick with an upper respiratory cold virus. I managed to give it to Doug also ;-) Well, anyway, we kept our schedule of filling the feeders. After yesterday's temp of 80 degrees, today's temp of 64 felt cool and the birds were hungry. It also meant that very few people were at the park. So it gave us the opportunity to fill the feeders at each station and then sit and rest (due to our colds) and watch the birds come in to eat. The birds were abundant! Here are some colorful ones. We sure are going to miss these colorful guys when we go back north!

The Mockingbird is the state bird of Texas and we sure enjoy listening to there imitating calls. Back home we had a mockingbird we nicknamed "Scrappy" because he/she would even dive bomb the cats! Texas mockingbirds aren't any more mild mannered than Pennsylvania mockingbirds!

I am still trying to identify this little olive green bird. Anyone know what it is?

The Kiskadees waiting for the feeders to be filled.

This Golden Fronted Woodpecker has his whole head in the hold in the log where I just put a mixture of suet and peanut butter.

The Altamira Oriole is enjoying the citrus. They are a much bigger bird than the Baltimore Oriole.

Another Golden Fronted Woodpecker.

An Altamira waiting patiently.

The Green Jays are my all-time favorite bird. They are iridescent all over and their chartreuse coloring contrast so strikingly to the turquoise and black. They are like flying jewels.

An Altamira and Green Jay.

An Altamira eyeing the new piece of citrus.