Winter weather found us again. Cold (45 degrees), rainy off and on, and blustery winds until the weekend. That’s life on the beach (in January).
Gulf Waters
Our palm trees are growing so big they’re even taller than Judy. They’re almost not bushes anymore.
Along the way
A silhouette like this; you can tell from any distance, it’s a scissor-tailed flycatcher.
Birding
Drove to Port O’Conner yesterday. Saw snow geese, redheads, goldeneyes, loons, spoonbills, black vultures, osprey, crested caracara, sandhill cranes, all the usual gulls, curlew, dunlin, and royal terns, Charlie’s pasture along the ship channel today: spoonbills, osprey, 75 avocets, long billed curlew, caspian tern, 6 common ground doves, 25 horned larks, mockingbirds, and cardinals. A good walk. We’re studying up for the warbler migration that starts in March. A couple years ago, we were here for one week late in the migration (early May), and were overwhelmed by the variety of migrants. This time we’ll be ready for the warblers and waterthrushes anyway. That will be a good start.
Herons and egrets
And sometimes they just have to dance.