Birding

Thurs., Feb. 27th – Tues., Mar. 10th, 2020

(This was in our innocent phase pre-Covid 19… although with birding we were actually practicing social distancing before it was even a thing!) 

The gulf coast of Texas is a mecca for birding particularly in the spring when birds are migrating back up north. We’re taking advantage of that as much as possible. We’ve walked East Beach in Galveston and were fortunate to see tons of black skimmers and dolphins having a grand ole time frolicking. Plus we continue to see lots of barge and ship traffic at that location. 

While having bloodwork done in Texas City as part of our annual physicals, we tied that in with a visit to Kemah Boardwalk. It’s on the short list as being one of the best boardwalks in the country. It’s owned by Tillman Fertitta and is home to a multitude of restaurants, rides, hotels, shops, etc. They’ve done a nice job with the flora fauna and the boardwalk sits directly over the water… no beach buffer… so an interesting experience if you’re riding their wooden roller coaster. Not that we did that! We just walked around for awhile. It was during a weekday so very quiet. After that we headed to Texas City Dike. An interesting spot! The dike goes out about 5 miles. We walked on the beach and saw Pelicans dive bombing for food and a White Pelican hanging around the Brown Pelicans. Sweet. We also saw a few Royal Terns and Laughing Gulls. 

The next day we continued our birding adventure by visiting Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. We saw a mama alligator and her 12 babies up close and personal. We were walking on a boardwalk and there they were just off the boardwalk. The other “wow” moment was seeing about 40 smaller yellow-crowned night herons just sitting in the weeds at the shoreline of one of the ponds. They were tucked in and somewhat hard to see. Gary spotted them. Unfortunately they were too tucked in for good picture taking. We also saw a Black Necked Stilt and Northern Shoveler. Not that we knew that at the time! We take pictures of the birds we see and come back and identify them in our bird book. Definitely helps to be retired to enjoy this hobby!  

We enjoyed dinner with Carey & Denis at their house one night this week. Carey’s an amazing cook! The original plan was to go for a boat ride before dinner but it was a little too windy. Although the wind died down so that we could enjoy a soak in their hot tub after dinner. That was fun. Brought back memories of being in our hot tub at home… although the outside temps were a little different! Denis also shared a bit about his career of being an ocean engineer. I didn’t even know that was a college major!

Friday, as part of routine health screenings, I had a mammo and bone density test scheduled in Texas City. We headed off to take care of that. It was in a brand new satellite facility which isn’t well known yet so it was empty. I bonded with the check-in receptionist who gave me a hug when I left! (This was before we had to worry about social distancing!) Sweet. From there we headed to Baytown and wandered around the Baytown Nature Center.  It’s a 450-acre peninsula and is an official site on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail. Nice hiking trails. At first we didn’t see too many birds, but then when we were leaving we saw plenty of ibis and egrets feeding. We also enjoyed a campfire that evening. 

Lastly we visited LaFitte Cove Nature Center… Carey’s recommendation. It’s on the grounds of an upscale community in Galveston. The sign is barely visible. I think that’s done on purpose to keep the riff-raff out. Like us. Charming walking trails and ponds. One couple we bumped into said “did you see the Bufflehead?” I said “Uh…. I don’t know what a bufflehead is.”  She was very nice and described the bird so we could find it. It’s an adorable black & white duck. We also saw an otter… we thought. Turns out it’s a nutria. Apparently they are pervasive around here. Photo is below. 

The only problem with birding is they aren’t on our schedule. Ideally it would be really, really nice if they were at their peak of activity between 11 and 4. But, they opt to feed earlier in the morning and later in the afternoon. Somewhat inconsiderate for those of us humans who want to spy on them and who aren’t early risers. I guess the early bird really does catch the worm! 

In amongst all the birding, we also took care of some chore items. We defrosted our freezer. Necessary on RV freezers even though it’s a thing of the past on home freezers. We got an oil change and tire rotation on the truck, which morphed into a 2 1/2 day extravaganza because there was an emissions issue, which thankfully was covered by warranty but still needed to be fixed. Then when Gary went to pick up the truck, he realized the tire rotation had been done completely wrong for a dually truck so they had to re-do it. Some inexperienced tech didn’t check the GM manual before they did it. We finally got it back and some money taken off the bill for the tire rotation boo-boo. Finalizing taxes was also done this week… along with grocery shopping. Gary took on the project of cleaning the awning on our RV and finishing up the waxing of the RV. Bless him!

Tomorrow we head off to visit friends in San Marcos followed by family in the Dallas area!