Monday, November 26, 2007

National Seashore and Finding Rosey

Sunshine! Oh, yes, the sun came out from behind those clouds and we packed up our picnic lunch, the dogs, cameras, binoculars and map and headed off to find adventure.

We drove down through Aransas Pass and took the ferry across to Port Aransas.





We drove down Mustang Island and then to Padre Island and on to the National Seashore. This has been designated as a "Site of International Importance for Birds".



We were here on the wrong day, or the wrong time of day, or didn't sit still long enough, but we didn't see very many birds.

Here's the visitor center where we enjoyed our lunch. We ate in the car since it was pretty breezy.


A walk on the beach provided some interesting shells, and many of these starfish



I loved the sight and the smell of the sea grasses. The scent reminded me of pepper.



I was feeling kind of let down that we didn't see any of the birds I was still waiting to glimpse, sandhill cranes, roseate spoonbills and whooping cranes. I think we'll probably need to take one of the bird cruises to see the whooping cranes.

On the way home we were already back in Rockport when Jim suddenly yelled at me to get the camera ready as he screeched to a halt beside the road. Eureka!

Here are two roseate spoonbills, one white ibis and one other ibis, maybe a white faced?


I must have taken at least 30 pictures of these guys, they are so incredible. And there they were, right by the side of Highway 35 in Rockport!

It has been a good day!

2 comments:

A couple of newer paintings 2019 said...

Congratulations, Ellie, you finally saw the roseates up close and personal. Great photos of them! I think they're so pretty. And they're pink because of what they eat.

Did you have pelicans flying with you on your ferry ride? Last year one of them did his business in flight and it came in the window of the truck and got pelican poop all over DH and the dash of the truck, some on the inside of the door. YUCK!

Aunt Ruth said...

I loved the pictures. I too love birds. You take such great pictures. Keep them coming. Aunt Ruth