Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

  

A little north of us.

 

Goose Island area

 

 

 

 

 

Got to be careful where you step.  This scene looks innocent enough, right?

 

Don't try walking right up to the water.  There is a tiny patch along the shore in the middle of the frame that doesn't look quite right.  Zoom in a little.

 

And that spot looks downright leathery.

 

Went around onto a deck and took a shot looking down from above.

 

That's a big-ass gator!

 

All's fun and games on the boardwalk though.

 

 

 

 

And it was a two-bobcat day!  Fleeting looks twice.  Not long enough for photos this time.

 

 

 

Judy’s birthday is coming up

  

She can have anything she wants, and she wants a take-out dinner from Mac’s Barbecue in Rockport.

 

Mac's Barbecue Street View

 

So we’re here at Goose Island State Park for a few days.

 

South Texas Places Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever it takes.

 

 

 

Americas Cup

 

Only 90 days and 47 minutes until the next America's Cup!

 

https://www.americascup.com/

 

But we don't have to wait that long for the action to start.  There are Christmas races that start in 10 days to determine the seeding for the Challengers.  The Prada Cup in 39 days will determine the Challenger who will face the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand at the America's Cup Series beginning March 6th.  For the actual America's Cup, it will be one-on-one racing until a winner is determined.  First boat to seven wins takes the cup.

 

No more catamarans or tri-hulls.  They're going back to monohulls, albeit monohulls with foils so they still lift up out of the water and scream along at top speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour. 

 

75-foot boats with a rudder and one foil in the water when they get up to speed, and the other foot up out of the water like a lizard standing on hot sand in the Kalahari.

 

 

It won't be anything like sailing is for the rest of us is, but it will be something.

 

 

 

Covid

  

I go on and on, comparing the death toll from Covid to the Viet Nam war; a war that lasted ten years, prompting nationwide protests, while sending a share of a generation of young men to their deaths.  Ultimately, we withdrew and stopped sending our sons to slaughter.

 

What I just recently realized, is that this Covid war is doing the same thing as the Viet Nam war; concentrating its wrath on an entire generation of Americans.  But this time, this new war is focused on destroying our oldest generation; and coincidentally, a lot of our oldest generation now, are survivors of the Viet Nam generation then.

 

 

 

 

 

It was cool to have the spoonbills flying all around us

  

 

Usually they just look like this.

 

Not that that's a bad thing.

 

 

 

Spoonbills in the Sunset

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good day birding yesterday

  

Hanging out at the house we heard there was an elegant trogan within 20 miles of us.  Elegant Trogon; that would be a life-bird.  We've looked for them in Southeastern Arizona, where they're supposed to be, and have always missed.  It's been on our radar for years.

 

So about noon, off we go to Estero Llano Grande State Park.

 

Estero Llano Grande State Park map

 

For a rare bird like this, you don't need to go looking for the bird, you go looking for the pack of birders looking for the bird where it was last seen.  We found them up a trail; there were about eight people all looking the same direction where the bird had just been.  Within 20 minutes, the bird appeared again.  We didn't get extended looks at it, but we got several good glimpses.  Here are the best (and worst) shots I got of it.

 

 

Life Bird!

 

This is a female bird.  I went online and copied a photo of what it looks like when you can see the whole thing.

 

Here is what the male looks like.

 

By then it was only about 2 o'clock, so we decided to go a little farther east and see if there were any wintering geese at Tiocano Lake.

 

Tiocano Lake map

 

You'll remember Tiocano Lake.  That's the place where I sent out the pictures of the flooded road where all you could see was the fence line above water.

 

No wintering geese at Tiocano.  We wandered up and down the road.  Roseate Spoonbills.  It was still daylight when we were going to leave; too early to hear rails calling, but I played a clip of a King Rail anyway, just for the heck of it.  A Sora went off with its distinctive call, which then set off a pair of King Rails calling to us from the reeds.  We stood five feet from two rails, that we never saw, listening to them chuckle and chortle.  Year Bird.

 

It was a good day birding.