I take lots of pictures, and sometimes I wonder why.  When I go to the birding center and Paradise Pond, I have taken over 600 pictures on a single afternoon.  Then I delete-delete-delete, until I have a more reasonable number to save.  The good part of having so many pictures to choose from is sometimes I find a surprise in the pictures that I didn’t notice when I was busily shooting away.

When I took this picture, I was noticing that the Black-Necked Stilts and the American Avocets were out of the water and standing on the sandy point with the Roseate Spoonbills.

As I got a better view of the point in my pictures, a big white bird entered into view.  I didn’t notice it at the time, but viewing it on the computer monitor I thought maybe it was an albino!!!

What the heck?  Then I started looking for this white bird in other photos, and I could see it was a White Ibis, doing wing lifts just like the spoonbills.  (Albino!  What was I thinking???)

I enjoyed getting a better view of a Black-Necked Stilt right on the point of the sand bar.  (The Black-Necked Stilts look like they are wearing tuxedos.)  Look at those skinny, long legs!  (The Avocets have the white horizontal stripe on their wings.)

Another computer monitor surprise was the big turtle in the midst of all these birds.  Do you see him?  He on the far side of the sand bar.

What a busy little piece of real estate.

–Sue

Here are two Texas bird pictures.  The pelicans always fascinate me:

And another favorite, a Northern Shoveler:

Click here to get to the give-away post.  You can enter the drawing once per day this week — drawing on Saturday.  Be sure and make your entry HERE!

–Sue

Last week at the birding center, this cute little Least Grebe entertained me for a long time.  When I take bird photos, I always have my camera set to take multiple (up to four) exposures if I hold the shutter button down.  You never know what the birds are going to do when they are already in motion.  This little guy didn’t disappoint me.  You would never guess how long his neck is!

Enjoy whatever you’re doing today, and don’t forget to take time to s-t-r-e-t-c-h!

–Sue

Last week on Mustang Island, we had some lovely days.  This week we are getting clouds and drizzly rain.  I’m sharing a picture from last week!  I love this time of day, and it really only lasts a few magical minutes.  It’s right before sunset when the sun is really low and just catches the tops of the waves and shades them pink.  Wishing y’all were here — next week when it’s nice again!

–Sue

Monday I made the short trip to both Paradise Pond and the Leonabelle Turnbull birding center.  It’s always a surprise to see what birds are there — or aren’t there.  Last week Paradise Pond was teeming with Great Blue Herons, Black-Crowned Night Herons, and Ibises.  This week there were turtles.  Lots and lots of turtles.  It was a warm sunny day, and anywhere there was the slightest bit of a log protruding out of the water, there were more turtles!  In case you’re interested, these are Red-Eared Sliders.  In the third picture, you will see the tell-tale red marking on the turtle’s head.  The largest ones are pretty close to the size of a dinner plate.

Then I made the 2-minute drive to the birding center.  No big birds at all.  From a far distance, I did see three of the Showy Egrets, and I saw one Tri-Colored Heron, also a little too far away.  Lots and lots of ducks, just like last week.  It was a calmer day, however, and with the bright sunshine, a lot of the ducks were taking a floating nap, like this Green-Winged Teal:

We sometimes see Moor Hens, but they are usually walking along the shoreline, in and out of weeds, and I haven’t been very successful in getting a good picture.  Today this guy was having a nice swim:

And a picture of a Northern Shoveler:

The water was so much more calm this week, it made for some nice reflections.  The next time I go, the weather, the birds, and the water will all be different.  It’s always an adventure!

–Sue

Telephoto Tuesday — Yesterday I showed you some of Paradise Pond.  Only a mile or so away is the Leona Turnbull Birding Center.  You can click here for an aerial photo/map of Port Aransas, showing the birding center, and a small box to the upper right is Paradise Pond.  (If you hover with your cursor on the boxes, it will show the names.)

Usually we see a larger variety of birds at the birding center, but Sunday it was pretty much all ducks.  I did see a Roseate Spoonbill flying in the distance and landing in a marshy area, so they were hanging out down out of sight.  I think the ibises and herons were all at Paradise Pond.

The birding center is a very large area dedicated to hosting the migratory birds that travel along the Gulf coast.  It’s a fun place to visit, because you never know what you’ll see.  There is a long boardwalk on one side of the water with an observation tower in the middle.  Here is a picture from the top of the tower.  DH is at the far end of the boardwalk:

To the left (I think it’s south, but I’m usually wrong!) is a pretty wide open body of water with some marshy areas beyond:

And to the right (north?) is a mostly marshy area, home to nutria, many kinds of birds, and an alligator (I think to keep the nutria numbers under control).  Sunday I saw a hawk circling around for a meal, but I couldn’t get a decent picture.

And in the water we saw a number of green-winged teal (here is Mr. and Mrs. — aren’t they cute?):

blue-winged teal:

and this crazy northern shoveler who thought he was an otter.  He would swim totally under the water, kind of snake-like.  He is totally saturated, and it gives him kind of a crazed look.  I like this picture a lot!  Doesn’t he look a little psycho?

I’ve got my walking shoes on, and I’m off for an afternoon of shopping in the “big town”, Corpus Christi.  The excitement continues…

–Sue

I keep going back to my Texas pictures because, quite honestly, there isn’t much going on outside my windows lately!  We are forecast to get snow today and tomorrow.  Brrr!  So I guess a visit back to Port Aransas, TX, on Mustang Island doesn’t sound like too bad an idea!

There were quite a number of green-winged teal at the birding center.  They are so much fun to watch because they come in a little closer to the boardwalk than a lot of birds do, and they are so active! 

This picture of a tri-colored heron always makes me smile because it looks to me like we’re getting a peek at her undergarments (I was going to say “petticoats”, but when is the last time you hear THAT term???):

I hope you’re having a great day.  I’m heading back to the sewing machine!

–Sue

This seems like a good week to go back to last month’s pictures taken at the Texas Gulf coast, as our Minnesota temperatures are expected to drop into the teens by week’s end.  Brrr!  This is one of my favorite birds, a Tri-Colored Heron.  One thing I’ve noticed about all the birds is that they are continually looking for something to eat.  Do you think any little fish or frog around this heron has half a chance?

During a beach walk to the south jetty (about 2 miles each way), we saw a Snowy Egret.  They are quite a bit smaller than the egrets we see here in MN, and are quite delicate looking.

This was a perfectly beautiful October day, and the fishermen and -women were fishing all along the jetty.  And a photography note:  The jetty is very long and the people were quite a distance away.  I used my zoom in taking this picture.  Notice how the zoom seems to compress the distance shown in this picture.  The people on the jetty weren’t as close to each other as it appears in this photo.

Stop here if the sight of fish blood would bother you. 

 This is the first time we saw someone with a shark as his “catch of the day”.The fisherman had cut off the tail of this blacktip  shark to bleed it out.  He said this is about the best tasting fish there is.  I would estimate this shark was between 2.5 feet and 3 feet long.  It was a little unnerving to know that someone pulled a shark out of these waters!  (I don’t know where I thought sharks would live, but I guess I assumed they were swimming off someone else’s beach.)

And I’ll leave you with a more pleasant picture of some bicyclists enjoying an afternoon bike ride on the beach:

–Sue

It’s been pretty chilly here in Minnesota, although we’re s*n*o*w-free right now, and that’s a good thing.  It’s been a nice, long fall, unless you have allergies.  Then it’s been a nice, long allergy season.  That’s okay.  You can take a pill for allergies.  The only “pill” I know of for winter is to go south.  So grab your sunscreen and your flip-flops and let’s go back to Port Aransas, Texas!

As I’ve said 30 or 40 times before, Port Aransas is my favorite place to be, and for me the main attractions are the beach and the Leona Turnbull Birding Center.  (Of course, later on, a big attraction is the other fun Winter Texans who make their way south!)

I wish I had a magical 360 degree picture of the birding center.  Most of the bird action is out towards the open water and back towards the reeds where the ducks and other birds hang out.  If you go up the observation tower, hower, and look towards land, you can often see a variety of birds.  Since this is Telephoto Tuesday, I decided to choose some pictures where I really used my telephoto to full advantage.  Here’s a picture towards land (just a piece of it, I couldn’t get it all in one shot).  And it’s none too scenic, but trust me, it’s full of birds!

I was watching for the roseate spoonbills.  They like to congregate back in this area, and you can usually see them in one of the smaller ponds.  This trip, however, I only saw one land, and it was far, far away.  I took a photo, but you couldn’t even tell what kind of bird it was!  I did find a great blue heron:

And two of my favorite pictures from the whole 12 days were of egrets back in this area (different egret on different days).  Look at this guy coming in for a landing!  What a wing span. 

And probably my most favorite picture.  I’m way zoomed out because he was in a tiny pond towards the back of this area.  This was taken probably about 5:00, and the golden sunlight made the colors look so rich.  Isn’t this a peaceful scene?

Thanks for visiting the Texas coast with me today!

–Sue

I took many, many photos while at the Texas Gulf coast a couple of weeks back.  The birds there never disappoint me!  These photos were taken at the birding center, quite late in the day.  It’s my favorite time to take photographs, as the low sunlight imparts a golden glow to most everything.  (I’m sure mornings are equally beautiful, but they come so early!) 

Here is a white ibis on the boardwalk railing.  A face only a mother could love, and knock-kneed to boot!  His face, beak and legs really are pink.

The teals were pretty bountiful this fall.  Here is one soaking up a little late-day sunshine:

This pelican was stretching his wings.  Because he was in the shadow of kind of an island in the middle, it almost looks like a black-and-white photo.

–Sue