Feb 19 2007
We woke to another beautiful day of sunshine and warm breeze. After a
relaxing wake-up we drove over to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge
where we had volunteered several seasons in the past. It is still a favorite
spot in the valley of ours. The grackles were screaming and making all kinds
of noise, a welcome call. We paused outside the VC to admire the greenjay
with its bright blue head.At the visitor center we said hello to Kathy, a
fellow volunteer, and Ranger Kevin. It was good catching up with Kevin. He
shared about his daugher going to A&M and being reading to move into an
apartment with some friends. Kathy shared about Justin's graduation from
HPU.
The butterfly gardens are mostly in seed, but we did see a few flitting
about. We walked the little trail around the VC and were disappointed that
there was no water in the little alligator pond near the office area. We
checked out the plaque that friends, Sally and Merrill, had put up at the
fountain they built and were shocked to see names on the plaque and theirs
was not included. Kevin had shared that Alligator Pond was dry; they stopped
pumping water from Lake Atascosa so that they would not change the ecosystem
that should be fresh rain water not bracish lake water. We didn't walk the
three miles back to Kidney Pond to see the alligator there. We did walk the
two-miles to the rookery and were disappointed to find it also dry and
therefore not a bird in sight. The walk was refreshing and it was fun seeing
the parking lot we had put posts all around and the trail we had cleared.
Then we drove Bayside Drive. We were rewarded with views of Great Blue Heron
in groups of 2-8 ready to fish out lunch, the ospry sitting on the white
parched beach with the wind russleing its feathers, some big birds with
really stout beaks, two or three long legged shore birds, and little short
legged shore birds. We used our new camera binoculars to get pictures and
hope some turned out so we can look the no-name birds up in our Thayer
Birding software. There is just a drop of water in Pelican Lake,a about a
foot in Laguan Madre and none most of the rest of the trip around the Auto
Tour Route. The Yucca are blooming; tall stalks filled with white pedals
reaching for the sky.
We stopped at Shuckman Farms for fresh right off the trees ruby red
grapefruit. We met Bob Shuckman; he said this is one of the worse seasons he
remembers, but to us they look great. From there we took TX100 over to South
Padre Island. Before the island we stopped in Port Isabel and went up into
the oldest lighthouse in Texas. whata view! Dinner was at the China Garden
where the buffet is $1 off for senors at jus $3.95. After dinner we found a
wifi hotspot and uploaded a few journal entries; did you like them? Then, we
drove out to the end of the roadway and parked along the dunes. We watched
the end of season seven of West Wing: Bartlett is out and Santos is in; now
what are we going to watch?
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