Sunday, May 31, 2015

Getting ready to travel

          Hard to believe we have been here for almost 6 months. Time just rushes by here and it is now just a week until we start back towards the East Coast. We have several stops planned along the way. First we are going to New Orleans for two nights. a little CafĂ© Dumont and some good sea food on Chart Street and then we plan to visit a friend in Hilton Head. We meet him in Wyoming two years ago and have stayed in touch so we will do a short stop as we have never been there before . Then on to Pea Island and we will be back on the Beach for the summer. It was just awesome there last year so we asked if we could come back an we were accepted. We have a new Refuge on our list for next year and it will be totally different as it is inland and on the Mississippi River just below Natchez , MS . It looks really nice. Should be interesting as the Refuge has parts that are totally flooded for part of the year . Looking forward to seeing it that way.                                   G

A little rain and a little sun

As we have had some rain every day for the last 27 days , all the ponds are full and there are frogs every where.

And as always where there are lots of frogs there are snakes hunting them.

He was just passing by on the hand rail where I was shooting the snake.

All the water plants are in bloom wherever there is some water.

Was washing the RV and this little one popped out from under the unit. We were wondering why our evening serenade of little green frogs had stopped.

It seems he didn't like to be hosed down with cold water so off he went back into the field next to us. A Rat Snake , no venom .

The moist soil unit across from the VIS .  Some young Roseate Spoonbills and Egrets.

One of the many Purple Gallinule around Shouvlers Pond

Went and visited one of the larger State Parks last week.


Lots of flowers every where.

A pair of Whistling Ducks enjoying the wet . They are the size of small geese.


Every where you look are flowers

And odd red one

Lotus flowers are in bloom all over the park


Just beautiful

Water drops on the lotus pads

We don't see a lot of deer in these parks so this was different.

Just resting. Also the reason there aren't a lot of deer in the park.

The cattle Egrets are every where right now. Their migration is off by a least 5 weeks due to the weather .

We were leaving the Refuge the other day and got caught in one of the many cattle drives that use the roads to move about.

                  They still do it the old way on horse back
Love their faces.

An Egret doing his part to keep the bugs off .

Some of the plants we helped with. They will help restore the Prairie that was destroyed during hurricane Ike.

A Night Hawk resting.

A Heron Fishing at the Refuge boat ramp.

A Purple Gallinule picking bugs on the pond edge.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Not much going on

We have been catching up on some much needed rest as we have completed almost all of the projects we had been involved in and now we are veging out for a few days .                                                                                                                             A Gull on the Gulf  .

A Ruddy Turnstone on the beach in McFadden Refuge.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Been busy

Cactus I bloom

Thousands of Pond Lilly's in bloom

Beautiful

One of our VIS Bunnies

Just hatched Mocking Bird babies

Scissor Tail Flycatcher on the VIS Railing

The Whistling Ducks making the moves

The Gators are now out every where

Commando watching the birds on he feeder

Cutie really watching the birds on the feeder

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Just Pictures

A Roseate Spoonbill feeding in one of the Moist Soil Units on the Refuge


A Heron Taking Off over Shoveller Pond
 

We just love the Alligators!

Speckled King Snake

A Night Hawk resting

A Purple Gallinule

A King Bird

Stilts Dancing

Just happy

Wasn't just dancing

Love is in the air

They are just so mellow

Little wild pigs

Red Wing looking for a meal

Snowy  Egrets

An Asian Owl that was at they school program we did

A South American Condor at the same program

A Western Cotton Mouth

Water Lilly's in bloom
A Blue Dragon Fly

Green frog


The flag on the Galveston Ferry

We had Dolphins jumping along side the ferry

Lantana is in bloom on the Refuge

A flower mix

Lantana vines


A Cattle Egret in his mating colors

Love the Night Hawks

Baby Killdeer

A King Bird with his lunch

Don't know this bird perched on the Coral bean bush

A Red Eared Slider we moved off the road

Just happy

A Gallinule in motion

Egrets on the move
A CaraCara resting