South Padre Island, TX (2/9-10/2020)

Sunday, February 9, 2020
Purchasing the "cheapest" seats on United Airlines means you cannot carry on carry-on suitcases! In the future we will have to decide whether the cost of the ticket-plus- fees is really the way to go.
However, the flights via Houston to Brownsville were on time. Cousins Pat and John were there to pick us up for the drive to South Padre Island.

The Palms Resort

After checking in at the Palms Resort, we all had dinner there at their Café on the Beach, joined by Cousin Joyce. What great company!

Monday, February 10, 2020

Looking back at the Palms from the beach

Red flag warning

A couple gulls and the rough surf of the Gulf of Mexico

Who made this hole? Ocypode quadrata/Atlantic Ghost Crab

Canavalia rosea/Beach Bean

Perhaps Acroptilon repens/Russian Knapweed, an invasive

We were picked up by Pat and John and met Joyce for breakfast at Yummies! The menu was a mix of Southern and Tex-Mex. Yummy, indeed!
Because of a parking fee for Isla Blanca Park on the southern tip of the island, we piled into one car. The rate for veterans was only $5 compared to the usual $12! Thanks, John!

El Cristo de los Pescadores/Christ of the Fishermen (1999) was
donated by the De la Lastra family as a memorial to those lost at sea

Plaques with the names of individuals who were lost

Joyce, Pat, John, Tamiko (KSS)

Monofilament/fishing line recycling
is highly encouraged 

The jetty disappears into the fog, this being the left bank
of the Brazos Santiago Pass connecting
the Brownsville Ship Channel to the Gulf of Mexico

We saw Larus atricilla/Laughing Gulls, Larus delawarensis/Ring-billed Gulls, and Sterna elegans/Royal Terns, as well as other gulls.

Kiteboarding or kitesurfing (KSS)

Next stop, the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, on the Madre Laguna side of the island.

Rescued juvenile alligators are kept until they are six feet long,
then are sent to Gator Country (alligator sanctuary) in Beaumont, TX

Pat feeds a tortoise

Tamiko feeds a tortoise (KSS)

Feeding lettuce to the tortoise

The tortoises look the most like Centrochelys sulcata/African Spurred Tortoises, a popular species for pets.

Cordia boissieri/Texas Olive

Two alligators kept by the center are Big Padre and Lady Laguna (KSS)

View back at the center with its five-story viewing tower

Ardea herodias/Great Blue Heron, seen along 3300+ feet of boardwalk (KSS)

Five fishes, all in a row, perhaps Ictalurus furcatus/Blue Catfish (KSS)

Homo sapiens var 'Pescadoro' (KSS)

Egretta tricolor/Tricolored Heron

Gallinula galeata/Common Gallinule

Find the Egretta rufescens/Reddish Egret and
the juvenile Eudocimus albus/White Ibis

Now find a Dendrocygnus autumnalis/Black-bellied Whistling Duck,
an Anas acuta/Northern Pintail Duck and an Egretta thula/Snowy Egret

We also saw Fulica americana/American Coots, a Nycticorax nycticorax/Black-crowned Night-Heron, Agelaius phoeniceus/Red-winged Blackbirds, Platalea ajaja/Roseate Spoonbills, Aythya americana/Redhead Ducks, Himantopus mexicanus/Black-necked Stilts, Rhynchops niger/Black Skimmers, Phalacrocorax auritus/Double-crested Cormorants, Pandion haliaetus/Ospreys, a Ceryle halcyon/Belted Kingfisher, a Rallus longirostris/Clapper Rail, and an Actitis macularia/Spotted Sandpiper.

Small fish are schooling to scare a small Podilymbus podiceps/
Pied-billed Grebe; however, an Ardea alba/Great Egret was not fooled (KSS)

Ardea alba/Great Egret (he actually has a fish in his beak) (KSS)

We saw a great blue heron that appeared to have fishing line wrapped around its beak, with something dangling from the line. Joyce was able to contact Javier G, a naturalist educator with the birding center, but he was not at the center today. She received permission for her fiance, Stan, to come to the center and attempt a rescue. Fortunately, the heron managed to free himself just before Stan arrived.

Joyce

Tamiko (photo by Pat)

After a late lunch at Señor Donkey, we drove to the South Padre Island Convention Center.

Wyland’s Whaling Wall #53 “Orcas off the Gulf of Mexico”
is on three walls of the Convention Center

Vachellia farnesiana/Huisache or Sweet Acacia
(Stan was able to pluck a few blossoms so we could experience the scent)

Sisters Pat and Joyce on another boardwalk, with the
South Padre Island Convention Center in the background

Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides/Mexican Flame Vine

Melaleuca citrina/Crimson Bottlebrush

Joyce and Stan had to leave for home.
After ice cream from Café Karma, we went to Pat's and John's condo to visit before heading back to our hotel.

Clouded-over sunset

Next: Brownsville.