Off-shore birding: It's a masked booby!

Masked Booby

 Jan and I were at South Padre Island last Saturday for a pelagic bird trip.

Then the next two days we birded SPI for a couple of hours and then visited
· Bentsen Rio Grande SP,
· a Parrot roost in Brownsville
· and the Resaca de la Palma SP 
before heading home Monday afternoon.

The Masked Booby and Storm Petrel were from 25 to 60 miles off shore. We were in 2,500-3,000 feet of water, and it was a beautiful deep blue.

Seas were 3 to 5 feet, which made it a challenge to take pictures, but we managed to get a few.

Here is a link. -- David H.

Band-rumped Storm-Petrel

Lady Bird's wildflowers and butterflies

Butterfly stopover.

Lady Bird, Lady Bird, Lady Bird.

On a quick trip to Austin, I stopped by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Following a path in the butterfly garden through a tall bunch of yellow flowers brought us to a standstill.

Whoa! Queen butterflies were fluttering through the area labeled Engelmann Daisy and Gayfeather.

The butterflies were a welcome sight for guests coming around the corner.  Reactions were much the same.  Footsteps came to halt and talking stopped. Adults pointed upward to help their kids focus on the butterflies. We all wanted to take pictures.

The wildflower center was preparing for July 28 Tribute Day honoring founder, Lady Bird Johnson. The gift shop had a display devoted to the "environmental first lady."

I circled the display a couple of times. I kind of wanted a Lady Bird t-shirt. -- Lana b

Still worthless on bird counts

One of my faves is the Black-necked Stilt. This pic was taken by bird count leader David.

I am a tag-along rather than a contributor when it comes to bird counts. But I'm learning.

If I see a bird first, which is rare, I simply point in silence. While other spotters point and helpfully offer the name.

The small band of bird counters I trailed for almost four hours at Baytown Nature Center spotted 51 species for July. High tides limited the number of shorebirds. It was hot although we started at 7 a.m.
-- Lana b

The list
29  Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
2    Mottled Duck
8    Neotropic Cormorant
20  Brown Pelican
10  Great Blue Heron
6    Great Egret
20  Snowy Egret
15  Little Blue Heron
9   Tricolored Heron
5   Cattle Egret
2   Black-crowned Night-Heron
13 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
5   White Ibis
1   Roseate Spoonbill
4   Black Vulture
1   Turkey Vulture
1   Osprey
1   Swainson's Hawk
3   Killdeer
14  Black-necked Stilt
54  Laughing Gull
4    Least Tern
47  Forster's Tern
3    Royal Tern
1    Sandwich Tern
1    Rock Pigeon
1    Eurasian Collared-Dove
64  White-winged Dove
9    Mourning Dove
12  Common Nighthawk
5    Chimney Swift
1    Ruby-throated Hummingbird
3    Red-bellied Woodpecker
2    Downy Woodpecker
2    Eastern Kingbird
4    Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
2    Loggerhead Shrike
6    Blue Jay
75  Purple Martin
6    Barn Swallow
1    Cliff Swallow
15  swallow sp.
1    Carolina Chickadee
6    Carolina Wren
6    American Robin
16  Northern Mockingbird
20  European Starling
19  Northern Cardinal
4    Red-winged Blackbird
14  Great-tailed Grackle
4    Brown-headed Cowbird
3    House Sparrow

Five ways to celebrate National Moth Week.

Happy National Moth Week.

You probably have your own special celebrations planned. However if you are still looking for ways to salute the moth this week, here are five suggestions.

I Don't Fly Around Your Fire Anymore: Sing Audioslave's Moth to the first moth you see.

‪Death's-head Hawkmoth‬: Pin up your creepy Silence of the Lamb poster in your cubicle.

Moths as Villains: Discuss which one has the worst outfit: Mothra, Godzilla's contemporary, vs. Killer Moth, a nemesis of Batman and Robin.

Not in the Face: Watch a marathon of The Tick and take a swig of your favorite nectar when Arthur the Moth (not a rabbit!) explains anything to the Tick.

Night Visitors: If you missed Moth Night Out July 20 at the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge, get your tickets now for Moth Night Aug. 8 in Britain.

-- Lana b

Caterpillar sighting makes my day

Hello! It's a Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

After helping with butterfly garden maintenance at the Baytown Nature Center for two months, I was rewarded with a caterpillar sighting. The two-incher was hard to miss.

In the underbrush of Turk's cap, the very hungry caterpillar was munching on some scraggly dill.

Fortunately caterpillars are patient with photographers. Trying to get a good shot of a butterfly with a smart phone camera can be a challenge. But a caterpillar barely pauses eating when a camera invades its space.

Also found in the underbrush were several drink cans. Who visits a park or nature center and tosses trash aside?

Dude, or dudette, stop throwing your trash into the bushes.

Dad's truck comes home with me

All cleaned up and ready to head to a new home.

 My first pickup truck is my dad's hand-me-down 1997 Dodge.

It's red!

The four-wheel drive truck made many trips from Amarillo to my parents' cabin in New Mexico.

The past 10 years it has been my dad's extra truck. When family members needed a vehicle, Daddy let them borrow it for days, weeks or months. Most recently a niece was driving it while her car was in the shop, and she added the dent in the front bumper.

This spring my dad had decided to part with the longtime member of his car family. Before his death in June, he had been talking about getting the bumper fixed and buying new seat covers so he could sell the pickup.

"I want it," I told my mom after the funeral. "I would love to have Daddy's truck." She was happy the red truck would stay in the family.

During this next chapter of its life, the red truck will be going on Gulf Coast adventures. Now I will have a way to haul my kayak, which I had never figured out how get into my orange Honda Fit.

The truck and I got acquainted during the 10-hour drive from Amarillo with no problems. And although I spent a day cleaning the cab, it still smells a little like Daddy. That's a good thing. -- Lana b

No more snow days, Daddy's truck goes on new adventures.

Ah, another day of rain

Green wake up.

After a month of dryness in the Baytown area, today we woke up to a third day of rain.

Everything is getting a good soaking without the worry of storms. 

After being stuck indoors, I am ready to get back into my neglected yard. I am working on reducing the St. Augustine and planting natives, especially those that are butterfly and hummingbird friendly.  My plan is to create a dry creek bed.

Scanning the internet and flipping through old magazines gives me ideas way beyond my financial or skill level.

But rainy days are good for dreaming. -- Lana b

Rain comes in the morning of July 17.

Down at the Mansfield Jetty

We four-wheeled down to the Mansfield Jetty July 12. It is about 60 miles south of the paved road at Padre Island National Seashore, and about 70 miles south of our house at Packery Channel.

The boats in the photo came across the Laguna, but since we don't have a boat (except kayaks) we drove. It takes over 2 hours each way, that is a lot of turtle territory.

The bunkhouse in the photos is for the turtle patrol people as it is too far from the Seashore headquarters to drive every day, so they have staging areas. I'm not sure how long the patrollers stay there. The tents are for people who want more privacy.

While we were swimming, turtles were swimming with us. They were Greens we think, not Ridleys. Kent and I are thinking of volunteering next year.

The orange inflatables on the jetty were probably left by illegals who use them to cross from South Padre to the National Seashore when they walk up the beach from Matamoros, or at least that is what the park rangers told us.

My pictures don't show how clear and beautiful the water was that day.

-- Mary U.S.

Turtle bunkhouse

Turtle corral.

Fishing at Mansfield Jetty.

Immigration fleet

Beached.

Turtle patrol musings

 

We drove the Surfside route July 5 with the intention of taking a photo of the heron, but he flew off. So I made sketch.

 It’s easy to get distracted on Sea Turtle Patrol on Surfside Beach.   

A  Zen-like concentration is required as we search for marks in the sand or the anomaly of a smoothed pathway across the endless tire tracks and ruts of beach traffic.   

Our focus must be interrupted somehow along the way during those four-plus hours of our search.  So we also watch for our Great Blue Heron. 

He’s a big guy, his knees and tall body towering above his feathered companions, always waiting in about the same spot on the edge of the water. 

He seems to like it there with his larger-than-average entourage of Laughing Gulls. There is lots of fresh Sargassum washing in on this piece of his beach.  It must be a shore bird’s buffet! 

-- Suzanne B.

Wildflowers add a bright spot on long drive

Wildflower in the median along US 287 near Clarendon June 27.

Bloomers in Baytown.

 Zooming across the state to Amarillo, I came to a unexpected stop between Clarendon and Claude. It was a traffic jam on the High Plains.

The car thermometer said the outside temperature was 100 degrees. Ahead there was a tower of black smoke.

Later I would learn the billowing smoke was from a load of tires burning through the trailer of an 18-wheeler.

After 20 minutes or so, some cars in the highway backup started crossing the grassy median and heading back toward Clarendon. I stayed in line.

While inching along, I noticed a spot of color along the highway. It looked like a basket flower aka Centaurea americana.

It was a scraggly specimen that only slightly resembled the tall, wild beauties blooming around the Gulf Coast right now.

My first impulse was to feel sorry for the scrawny wildflower that has survived mowers and drought. But it doesn't need my sympathy. It is where it should be. -- Lana b.

Today there is a nice stand of Centaurea americana along the Arkokisa Loop Trail at Baytown Nature Center.