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.....
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