The rare endangered Whooping Crane

 

 

Mom, Dad, and a kid standing in the shallows.

 

 

Sharing their space with a family of Sandhill Cranes.

 

Sandhill Cranes look pretty big, they’re 3 ½ feet tall, until they’re standing next to Whoopers.  Whooping Cranes are 5 feet tall, like Judy.

 

One might wonder

 

 

…why I’m inside on such a nice day.

 

It’s because it’s so bright outside it’s hard to see the computer screen if I’m at the picnic table.

 

Went into town, Rockport, for dinner at Mac’s Barbeque.  Just as fine as always.  Admired this fishing pier.

 

And stopped by a shop to visit with our old friend Dovie.

 

Any by “old”, I mean 97.  Dovie painted the whooping cranes on that jacket that Judy is wearing about 25 years ago.  We’ve been friends for that long.

 

Camping weather

 

 

Now we’re at Goose Island State Park.

 https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1344817,-96.9935125,15z?entry=ttu

 Move in day.

 

Three hours north.  Got set up before sundown.  It should be a little chilly tonight, but warmer after that.

 

Sunday morning

 

 

A treat.  Coffee, homemade cinnamon rolls, and eggs for breakfast.  Yum.  Sweet!  The eggs were so we could feel a little better about ourselves after.

 

Maybe we should have had some oatmeal too.

 

 

And this little guy

 

 

 

You can see how small he is compared to the gulls behind him.  He looks a lot like the semipalmated plover, but the color is a little lighter and the legs are more yellow.

 

Piping Plover.

 

 

Tiny little semipalmated plovers on the mudflats

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it comes to electric trucks

 

 

Particularly those with trailers.  The trailers have all that vertical and horizontal surface.  Let’s extend the range of each by putting lightweight solar panels all over the trailers.  (Okay, maybe there aren’t really lightweight efficient inexpensive solar panels yet, but let’s pretend.)  Not all of them will face the sun at once, but at least some of them will all the time.  They can collect and charge throughout the daylight hours whether the truck is driving or not.  Less stops to recharge.  Less recharging through the grid if the electric fleet is plugged in at night.  It could happen.  Someday.  Better batteries, better solar panels, eventually each truck could be independent with unlimited range.

 

 

The Great Blue Heron

 

 

 

It’s ubiquitous.

 

 

Elegant?

 

 

At least unusual.  The American oystercatcher

 

 

 

See the big bird way out there in the water?

 

 

It’s a reddish egret.

 

They don’t stand and ambush fish.  They’re really active when they hunt.

 

 

Oh, and you may have noticed he isn’t red.  That’s because it’s an occasional white morph.  Here is what they look like when they’re red!

 

 

Northern Pintails are elegant

 

 

And then there are the Black-bellied whistling ducks.

 

We could just call them “colorful”.

 

The elegant Northern Pintail

 

 

 

 

That pelican

 

 

 

I think he’s asleep.

 

Not just pretending to be asleep, but sound asleep!

 

Can you spot the

 

 

…sneaky sneaky green heron.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever tried eating European?

 

 

In America, we hold the fork in our left hand and our knife in our right hand to cut our food (assuming we’re right-handed), then switch hands with the fork to get the food to our mouth.  In Europe it’s simpler, more direct.  Hold the food still with the fork in your left hand while you cut it with your knife.  Then put the food that is already skewered on your fork directly into your mouth.  Sounds simple, right?  We tried it while we were in England.  First off, it’s hard to break that ingrained habit of switching hands with the fork.  Second, when we eat American style, we’re moving the food to our mouths with the fork tines pointed up.  The food tends to stay on it.  European style, the fork tines are pointed down and the food wants to fall off back onto the plate mid-journey.  We gave up and went with what we’re used to, transferring the fork hand to hand.

 

Another failure to adapt happened at the pizza restaurant.  We could not bring ourselves to eat pizza with a knife and fork like what was happening at all the tables around us.  That’s just wrong.

 

 

The Ice Fairy

 

 

 

About once a year we get weather cold enough at night to make ice on the fountain.

 

This is that time this year.  28 degrees last night.  Headed for 25 degrees tonight!  Then the next night, the end of the polar vortex, it should be about 50.

 

Jesse knows everything

 

 

Feed the dogs in the morning.  If one piece of kibble spills out onto the kitchen counter, Jesse knows.  She can’t see the countertop from where she is on the floor, but her nose knows.  After she eats, she’ll stand in the kitchen and moan.  Go there and ask what’s wrong and she’ll run to the closest spot to the counter and look up.  Even if you can’t see it at first, keep looking.  There will be a piece of kibble there.

 

If there are two pieces of kibble there and you only give her one and walk away; it’s not over till it’s over.  She knows.

 

 

Northern Shoveler

 

 

 

 

 

South Padre Island

 

 

Like rush-hour in the air.  Gulls and skimmers.  Ducks on the water.

 

Just skimmers.

 

Cursive

 

 

At the federal level it hasn’t been a core school requirement since 2010.  Less than half the states require it in school at all.  It seems irrelevant in these times of laptops, smart phones, and tablets.  Who needs to write by hand anymore?

 

That brings a question to my mind.  Every legal document we sign has those two lines:  Print your name here.  Your signature here.  If a kid doesn’t know how to write in cursive, as an adult how are they going to sign a document?  Are the print line and signature line going to look exactly the same?

 

 

 

Another 80-degree day

 

 

And a sunset to go with it.

 

Big weather coming soon though.  West to east across the whole country.

 

Chachalaca

 

 

They’re big tropical-looking gregarious noisy birds.

 

 

And sometimes they even have attitude.

 

This tree

 

 

 

There is something in it.

 

It’s an eastern screech-owl.

 

Pretending to be asleep!