Merry Xmas

                   Merry Xmas to all from Texas

We miss you all and we will keep all of you in our Heart on this most Beautiful day.

As always a little behind on postings

A CaraCara lands in the tree behind our RV looking for s meal of fresh Grackle

Of course the Grackles are hiding under our vehicles

The Super Moon from thee RV pads

The Snow Geese are slowly coming back by the thousands

In flight

The rice fields turn white as they land

And of course as the geese arrive so do the Eagles and Hawks

Now that the weather is much cooler here , days in the seventy's and nights in the fifty's the Gators have come out of hiding.

Just striking a pose

And now a profile shot

Cormorants and an Egret enjoying the sun

A caracara hunting

Raccoons are starting to come back in numbers on the Refuge . It's been eight years since the hurricane wiped out all the little critters here.

Just watching me take it's picture

Our baby whistling ducks are all grown up. They all seemed to survive the summer season with little loss.

Just drying it's feathers. These Cormorants have no oils to spread so after they spend time in the water they have to come out and dry themselves . Having held them , their feathers feel more like fur.

Lauren hard at work on the Butterfly garden in the refuge .A cool day, so many layers.

Lauren helping out at a gathering for a very sick friend who works at the refuge.

As the butterflies move in, this Gulf Fritillary landed and was just beautiful. 

Loving the flowers

Thousands of shore birds move into one of new ponds on the Refuge

A little hard to see, there is a Burrowing Owl in the dark spot along the concrete on the left .

These guys are every where here

Lots of little shore birds

One of the big gators coming out of his burrow all covered with grasses

Just posing , looks like we are here until next May. Then we are off to a new Refuge for us in Georgia for the summer , Savannah NWR just a few miles north of Savannah . Then back to Pea Island in September. On the home front we are going to Houston on Monday to see another doctor to try and resolve Laurens medical issue . Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving .                                                                                                                     G

Staying i Texas for a little longer.

A Night Heron  giving me a great pose .

Just hanging out , most of the other Herons have already moved on as we have had a couple cool days and it has triggered the migration south .

Our duck families are almost done with their training and are enjoying the pond . With most of the other ducks having moved on we now await the arrival of the ducks from the north on their southern migration.

Just a joy to watch as they feed .

These Vultures are enjoying the fresh cut grass and are sunning themselves . They are also looking for the little critters that didn't make their way out from the grass cutters .

With the Alligator hunt over the ones who were in hiding are now making their presence known again.

Just a sunny day and all is good. Cooler nights and warm days make it perfect for them.

My favorite subject , I have been taking pictures of this one for the last several months and I'm always in awe as to the grace it displays as the hunt goes on in it's daily routine . 

A new born sunning itself .

One of those really still days and it's just perfect for a flight over one of the Refuge bayous .

Another one of the larger family groups on a little walk along the pond .

In the last week tens of thousands of Black birds have been passing through on their southern migration and the racket they make is just so beautiful to hear. It makes us glad to see the birds in such large numbers again . It brings back memories when I was little and the bird migrations would fill the skies .



Had a really still morning on the way to open the VIS in the Refuge yesterday morning  and all the spider webs were covered in dew with the sun just starting to light them up . All covered with natures jewels .

A spider checking out the early morning catch.

A different pattern in this web . It's a shame the goldenrod tore  a hole in the center.

A controlled burn going on in the Refuge . They are getting the marshes ready for the fall migration of ducks and geese . In the next two weeks more RV families will arrive and the Refuge will become a very busy place. First the Raptors will arrive in large numbers and then  ducks and geese by the tens of thousands, soon after that the song birds . So many different migrations . At least they do arrive a little spaced out . But it's just so wild when there is a hundred thousand birds of different species here .



This mornings Sunrise , it was just so awesome . The temperature here was 54 degrees and with no humidity it was a joy to be outside . This is the beginning of the weather change here and it's a welcomed relief . It's weird to have the AC cycle . The silence is weird after it running nonstop for the last 6 months.
So here we are in Texas still and we assume we will be staying awhile longer as we still haven't resolved Laurens medical issue. We met with a new doctor and he has put her on a new drug to see if we can clear up her problem without having to do surgery. It's a ten day regiment so we will once again have to be patient and wait for the outcome.

I'ts really quiet here.

Now that the gator hunt is over they have started to show up again in the Refuge . The recovery of the Gators after their near total wipe out after Hurricane Ike has been really well managed and there were enough to allow 20 permits to catch one in the refuge were issued for  10 day window for the hunt  . The gators won this one as only a few were taken and now it is over .

There are still a few Lotus blooming in the pond but most have passed as the cooler weather is arriving. We haven't hit a 100 degrees now in almost a week. The next cool front may take us down into the low 80's in the day and some 60's at night . we haven't seen those temps since early April.

All the baby ducks are now grown and getting ready to migrate .These Whistling ducks have been flying all around the Pond and are ready for migration south from here very soon.

A Yellow Crown Night Heron out looking for dinner . We had several hundred that had nested here and the to will soon move on .

So many rain storms and so many Rainbows .

A young Spoonbill working a mud flat for lunch.

We were helping with a bird survey on one of the non public parts of the refuge and came across a bunch of new born were standing in the road .

As free range cattle they have no fear of vehicles and they moved along with us as we traveled .Some of them still had their umbilical cords hanging and had some dried birthing fluids on them . Just so cute .



                                                                                 We see a rainbow almost everyday .                                                               It looks like we will be here for at least another month or two as we will see Laurens surgeon on next Wednesday and will find out when she will have her surgery. We are missing the family at the Beach in NC  this week and will miss a wedding next week in PA,. But our needs are coming first and we need for Lauren to feel better again before we move on. If things drag out here for to long we will stay in Texas until next year . Then we go back to our normal travels     G