The morning view

 

 

 

 

Gain a little elevation,

 

and the oak forest yields to juniper and mountain laurel.

 

Garner State Park

 

 

 

February 2026 Trip Link

 

Not far.

 

 

 

Nice enough.

 

 

 

We’ll stay a while.

 

Her name is Shelly

 

 

 

She’s a Sulcata Tortoise (African Spurred Tortoise).  Endemic to the transition zone at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in North Africa.

 

A rescue, housed at the birding and nature center on South Padre Island.  They have several of them there.  They’re solitary animals, so they keep them separated.

 

I took the shot

 

 

Leqvio.  It’s to reduce LDL cholesterol.

 

Cardiovascular issues.  Statin intolerance.  Elevated LDL cholesterol numbers; not way out of range, but elevated.  Advice for all these years to lower my LDL numbers.  But no solution that’s not worse than the problem.

 

If the physician documents a person as intolerant of other medications, or other medications don’t work, that person can be cleared for Repatha or Leqvio.  They are both shots instead of pills.  Repatha you give yourself a shot every two weeks.  Years ago, after I got my heart surgery, I got cleared to use it.  I didn’t have a problem with injecting myself every two weeks, but I never pulled the trigger.  I had this reservation about messing with a machine so complicated and effective as the human body, and throwing it out of balance, creating more and different problems.  Unintended consequences from trying to go from good to better.  Risky.

 

Now, years later, we’re still having the same conversation about lowering LDL cholesterol and the numbers continue to climb a bit.  So we’ll give it a go.  With Leqvio, instead of an injection every two weeks, it’s an injection twice a year, administered at a clinic.  Got the shot on Tuesday.  Felt crummy for the rest of the day.  Not an unusual reaction to the shot.  Wednesday and after, I’m feeling just fine.

 

I think two weeks will be the key.  Every other medicine I’ve tried to lower cholesterol, I’ve reacted within two weeks.  From my experience I conclude that either I just can’t tolerate the particular drugs, or I can’t tolerate being without the amount of cholesterol my body normally produces.  Don’t know which is it.

 

I think we’ll know soon enough.

 

 

 

Two boats

 

 

 

On the same body of water.

 

The very definition of a boat race.

 

 

Jesse

 

 

On the job.

 

Sort of.

 

 

Portrait of a Willet

 

 

 

They’ve come a long way

 

 

From this.

 

Bound and bagged.  In my mind yearning to be free, but well protected from the elements in the meantime.

 

To this.  Rio Red Grapefruit.

 

All grown up now.

 

A good-looking crop.

 

The odd couple

 

 

 

Great Egret.  Little-blue Heron.

 

Who wouldn’t love to walk here

 

 

 

 

This is cool

 

 

A real-time illustration of checklist submissions on eBird for the four-day Great Backyard Bird Count!

 

GBBC Live Subs

 

It takes a minute to load, then it comes alive.

 

 

My best bird today.  White-tailed Kite.

 

It used to be called a black-shouldered Kite, but either way works.

 

 

 

Its range touches the U.S. but just barely.  Mostly a Central and South America bird.

Life on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

Black-necked Stilt

 

 

 

Impeccably dressed.

 

 

 

The tower

 

 

At the birding center.

 

With kids on it!

 

And parents.

 

And a view of the boardwalk and flats below.

 

Back on the island

 

 

A view of the bay side.  The Laguna Madre.   A vast, extra-saline, warm nursery for the bigger creatures that live in the Gulf.

 

With the bridge to get here in the background.

 

And the view from the deck.

 

This is unusual

 

 

 

A roving band of 150 cattle egrets in the field.

 

They hung out for several hours.

 

We see them around this time of year.  They gather for migration.  But we’ve never seen them in the park like this before.

 

We told Jesse

 

 

Becky and Brian were coming for dinner and the super bowl.

 

She waited on the deck.

 

And waited.

 

And watched.

 

Watched.

 

And finally.

 

Rewarded for her patience.