Friday, January 31, 2014

      We had a great day today . We had volunteered to clean out the Wood Duck boxes behind the Visitor Center in Anahuac and today was the first warm day to get into the water and not have to worry about bees and wasps and other critters that slither in the Cypress Swamp. Well it worked out mostly good as there were no Bees in the Duck boxes but there were some huge ass wasps in one. Have you ever seen a wasp that is 2 inches long , well I can tell you they are some thing to see and I was glad they were still a little slow as this boy could have not run away in those conditions. I know the few pictures I posted surely did not show the real picture. That was a 4 hour tour through the swamp and the water here is still only in the 50's. Just warm enough for the guys that slither to finally make an appearance along with the Turtles. Just to cool in many ways.
       We also had a chance to check out one of the many Owl Boxes on the Refuge and was pleased to see that they have also made a come back and there was more than enough evidence to assure us that the nest was active. So much for today, you never know what tomorrow will bring.         G
What would a normal person do on a warm day in January

He would slog through a Cypress Swamp to clean out some bird and duck boxes

Yes Wood Ducks nest in in boxes

To old and too fat to be doing this

You do have to admit that its way cool

It's still sad that 6 years later I am still picking up Hurricane Ike garbage in the area

Some of todays trash haul from the Cypress Swamp behind the Anahuac VC


I just love the turtles and I love all the pictures that Lauren took today. She was my Safety Person today and I could not have done all I did without her.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Our Vermilion Fly Catcher once again just a great looking Bird

One of the Red Tails Preening

He was awesome to watch

All look the same but they are really different

I wish I could do all the Pic like this.

One of the small Hawks eating a Black bird

Watching over the traffic

A Rosette Spoonbill looking for dinner and a couple of Coots just working the hi grass

They are just so colorful

I love the ducks in flight

One of the big Wood Peckers

We see these two everyday and they are always together, we figure they are a mated pair

Some of the larger wildlife in motion

He didn't mind us at first

Then we got the bird eye

He had enough and flew away

One of the Refuge Otters that I have been trying to get a few Pictures of.

And then there were two with a delicious fish breakfast

I watched them for almost 20 minutes

Trying to eat while I disturbed them

Too cute

Just eating and preening.

Enough, I'll just swim away

Yes that's Ice on the sign. It was 27 degrees

A White Crowned Sparrow, they are starting to arrive in large numbers

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

   We went for a ride on Sunday as it was in the low 70's here then, right now we have freezing rain and 30 degrees. So we went for a ride down Bolivar Peninsula on our way to Galveston . We meet a new friend there for lunch at a really good Mexican Restaurant, good food and really reasonable to boot. As with most of our friends we ended sitting and taking for almost three hours. It seems we always know the most interesting people and still enjoy the art conversation. After feeling bad for the waiter we moved the talk outside and gabbed a little longer. After we parted ways we planned to go for a stroll along the Seawall but was totally surprised that the town fathers have made it impossible to visit without paying to park and the only way to pay is with your phone and if you want to use the side streets they are all permit parking only now. I guess they figure if you come to visit you will pay no matter what. Very sad as we will not visit there again. What a difference as when we went after Hurricane Ike passed through they were just happy you were there and now they have gotten greedy. OH well with all the great places to visit its no loss to us just sad. They sleet and freezing rain is coming down fairly hard right now but the fireplace is keeping us toasty.                            G
We went for a little ride on Sunday came across theses young Ibis walking along the road side.

Of course when we stopped to take pictures  they left us.

A Boat Tail Grackle just walking by.

We are on the ferry to Galveston and there is always some body feeding the birds at the back of it.

They get a good crowd of Gulls and there is pandemonium

And then there is poop in your hair.

Always nice to know that there is one life boat for 100 people.

He was talking up a storm and then he pooped on our windshield.

Just a nice shot.

It was a windy day

Gotta love the Grackles picking the bugs out of our tires

A lone Gull keeping up with us.

Saturday, January 25, 2014


Our world at 5:30 yesterday

It was a coating of a quarter inch of Ice

Everything was covered with crystals of ice

Just awsome

This morning we have Sun light

The sunrise was beautiful

Everything sparkles

Me the ice and my shadow

Lovely

Our little part of the world warms up

Laurens plants on our picnic table

Just the other day we were on the beach picking up shells

One last look before nature takes back all the glow.