Are we still in Texas?

15 March 10 – 21 March 10

After being here a full week and going a number of different places we have it all down. We have been on 'This Way' and 'That Way' and crossed 'Little Country Road' all in the same week. The first two I wasn't sure I was reading correctly, but the third one the sign just went past and I didn't even think about it.

With two days of rain in the week we did not see all the places we want to yet. We will try again this next week if it only rains one day. That is the forecast today. This is NOT Ohio where you can just wait a couple of hours and it will change, but the weather people here are not any better than there. We are still not seeing many birds, but have started to see some warblers. They are the start of the big influx is what I have heard.

It is amazing to drive and see the amount of damage still left after hurricane Ike two years ago. The NWR's along the coast are almost denuded of trees, but a lot of the native grasses are coming back. You can walk, like we did on Matagorda, and find chairs and table parts and anything that would blow up and down the coast. Some of the debris is miles inland in places. Then you had the house that was discovered blown away by Ike this last week. Nature can have its fury. One of the comments made about the house was: “I'm sure the Insurance company will want to move the homeowner back in and get their money back.”

One of the places we went this past week even had a feeder out for the birds. No having to look for a living there. As always – every good feeder attracts the nemesis of all bird feeding people – the squirrel. We also saw and heard our first Meadowlark on one trip. During one journey we drove right by a Kill Deer sitting on three eggs. They are no different here than Ohio in that she was 2-3 feet from the tire track. She did get up as I passed – it was the only thing that caught my eye. I backed up and did get a picture of her standing guard on her eggs.

We had 38 as the overnight low last night. Be prepared because it will be coming your way. After a couple of days getting back at 5:00 to 6:00 PM and the RV being 80+ this morning was a real shock to the system.

Pictures:
Cattle Egret – not car or camera shy
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Squirrel – Larry – tell Paul I can add to his heart collection
Common Yellow Throat – what a bright bird