Posted on

Platform Boat Follow-up

Remember that odd thing I sent pictures of; the platform boat? We got an explanation from our birding friend Jon, who is also a fishing boat driver all summer: … your boat is a “jack-up” oil rig. They will pull up next to oil platforms and the pilings go into the water to the bottom and then they jack the center part up and work on the oil rigs….

Jon

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2008 7:20 PM
Subject: platform boat
A really odd thing. A workboat/platform kind of thing. It motored down the channel under its own power, returning from the open ocean. It has those giant pilings it can apparently put down, like an oil platform, but oil platforms generally don’t provide their own locomotion. Maybe it’s some kind of study vehicle. Maybe they do geologic surveys. Don’t know, but here it is.

Posted on

First Annual Parade of Lights

When I described the parade as “taking shape”, I didn’t mean to suggest that there was any final form to it. It was a wonderfully random experience involving lights, music, bicycle horn honking, bell ringing, and laughter; that did manage to find its way around the entire park several times in several directions to at least occasional applause and delight. It went on well into the dark. Plans have begun for the second annual Happy-After-Christmas Parade of Lights.
Posted on

Masked Ducks

A week ago, we got a masked duck report again. This time in a pond to the south. North of Weslaco. West of Raymondville. One hundred forty miles from here. Friday we made the drive. Masked ducks! Four of them. Right where they’re supposed to be. Life bird. Life is good.
Posted on

Masked Ducks

Got a hot lead on a Masked Duck. In December 2007. A year ago. We’ve seen most of the ducks that can be seen in North America. The Masked Duck is one we haven’t. It’s only in South Texas, and only once in a while, so if one gets reported, it’s worth a look. We’ve been after the Masked Duck for years, but didn’t get right to it. We were otherwise occupied in early December last year; but when we could, we went off to find it. We got directions to the pond, eighty-five miles from here. Drove right to it (the pond that is). We went in search of a new bird, the Masked Duck, and we got a new bird, the Monk Parakeet (we had also heard about). To get to the pond with the Masked Ducks, we drove through the town of Orange Grove. In Orange Grove, if you turn right at the second intersection after the four-way stop and look in the first palm tree on the left, you’ll find the parakeets. If they’re not in the palm tree, roll down the window and listen. You’ll hear where they are. Loud little buggers. They’re filling the head of that one palm tree with a communal stick nest. They like to talk while they work. What we’re used to calling parakeets, those little 7” long cage birds you can teach to talk, are actually Budgerigars from Australia. Budgies. These Monk Parakeets are small parrots, almost 12” long, much bigger than a Budgie. There are probably twenty-five parakeets working on this one tree-nest. Anyway, we got the parakeets last December. We didn’t get the Masked Duck though. There was a pair there in the pond but they left before we got there.