Last Days at S.P.I.

Hundreds of gulls and terns take flight

Just a couple of days left on South Padre Island until we move on to the main land of S. Texas and our slow move back up the Rio Grande Valley.

We took a ride south to Sable Palm Sanctuary at the most southern tip of Texas  Walking through the trails we found many of the S. Texas bird specialties.

Plain Chachalaca at Sable Palm

White-tailed Hawk protects it's prey from vultures

Brown Pelicans wait for a hand out

Walks along the beach and channel brought interesting sights.  We also went to the Birding Center twelve times and also enjoyed having friends join us from Sheboygan, Wisconsin (Dave & Margaret Brasser) and new friends Steve and Sue, hosts at Bentsen State Par,.

Ruddy Turnstone

Loggerhead Shrike

Black-crowned Night Heron

Green Heron tries to blend in

Least Bittern succeeds at blending in

Laguna Madre

Harkening back to my (Ty) construction projects at the Wildlife Sanctuary, I took a great deal of interest in the channel dredging next to our RV Park.  The massive dredge cutting head removed sand and silt to a depth of 20 feet; pumping the slurry through a 3 foot diameter "umbilical cord" rubber pipe to the onshore steel pipes moving material 4 miles along the beach for beach enrichment.

Upon the completion of the 3 month project, the steel pipeline was separated into 714 foot long sections.  They were dragged with a backhoe,  3 large bulldozers and a end loader to the channel.  The pipe ends were welded shut, filled with air and with a floating barge crane and 3 tugs were dragged into the water.

The pipes were floated and secured into large rafts.  Tugs will drag the pipe rafts to projects in Alabama and N. Carolina.

A fun part of walking the beach is collecting shells.  We will not be keeping all these but leaving them for the next person in our RV site.

Redhead Duck

Black Skimmer

Reddish Egret makes shade to better see the fish

Osprey carries his catch home

Black-necked Stilt checks reflection

Harris's Hawk catches a large rat

We took two more rides to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.  Always something new to see on the birding tour around the Lake or the Bayside tram tour.

Horse Crippler cacti

Northern Bobwhite at feeding station

You never know what will show up along the coast.  Like a large Loggerhead Sea Turtle who quickly takes a gulp of air and disappears in the waves.  Someone digging for bait at low tide and coming up with these soft 4 inch long ghost Shrimp.

Ghost Shrimp burrow

So we say goodbye to the salt water spray of the Gulf of Mexico.

Love & Prayers,  Ty & Ida Baumann