A Little of This, A Little of That

While we were out back, not only admiring our new patio, but thinking about the plants we need as well, I noticed a dead male cardinal under one of the aging Ligustrum plants. I almost felt sick seeing the bright red on the dried up leaves. How did this happen? Although there were no visible signs of injury, according to Bruce who gamely put him in the trash bag offered by our neighbor David, something untoward happened. 

I'm thinking that if the neighbors weren't out working on their side of the patios, Bruce would have buried the cardinal rather than cavalierly placing it in the empty mulch bag being used for trash disposal. He's really good like that. 

In other news, I just heard from Jonathan regarding the freezing weather in Texas. He and Alissa have decamped from their freezing apartment to his office at UT. He's just taken a hot shower in the gym. I don't know about Alissa but I suspect she's doing the same. It is one thing not to have power to see, but it is quite another not to have hot water, or anyway to to make water hot. They'll be sleeping on an air mattress. When I asked if others were doing the same, he said he was not sure but over 1/3 of the city has been without power for the last day. Oh Texas!

I just finished Elizabeth Strout's new novel, Lucy by the Sea, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I always love her books. The plainness is appealing to me. About the early days of the pandemic, a lot of memories came flooding back to me while reading it in short order. I suspect, if I were a novelist, my blog posts from those months would make for research gold.  We'd gone to the library Monday afternoon and I think this time I hit pay dirt, finding the above novel as well as Colm Tobin's latest on the shelves. (there are supposed to be marks above the o and i in his last name but I don't know how to make them)

So that's some of the news outside of the usual happenings. 

In usual happenings, we went back to the Wetlands on Tuesday, missing pickleball for the birds. It was a good trade-off.  That Cypress dome I pictured before? Do you remember it? It is now in the process of becoming a rookery, a term you might have learned before in this very space. As a refresher, read this. 

To say that it was amazing is putting it mildly. All of the local photographers that I know are going crazy for the place and it is easy to see why. It all starts with the fantastic boardwalk that takes you right to the action and there is action aplenty.

My excitement builds as we step onto the boardwalk and I always hope that my first photograph will be a winner, but usually it is not. The truth is, there's just too much going on to process any of it. At least that's what I think. That said, if you look closely you will see the dots of pink.

Far closer, as in some feet away I notice a Wood Stork on our left and of course, click the shot. Several actually. To tell you the truth, until I saw it on my computer screen, I had no idea there was a big fat fish for breakfast.

Since you now have become reacquainted with the term, rookery, it won't surprise you to see that there are nesting Wood Storks in the mix.

It was noisy with the sound of chattering birds. Great Egrets are busy in fine breeding apparel as well.

I just realized that I'd failed to show you a  close-up photo of the breeding mask of the Egret I took on our lake. For some fun facts about Great Egrets, click here. 

The birds that get the most attention however, is the Roseate Spoonbills who are nesting very, very close to the boardwalk. This is one of a pair that was heading back to the nest.

The pink of those wings is so beautiful, an observation I need not point out.  From reading in this space you are well acquainted with my love for these birds that are both crazy looking with their spoonbill, and beautiful in color. And I am always thrilled to see even one. Imagine how being this close to the action  made me feel!

I won't belabor it, at least in this post, but from our observations, there are at least 50 in the vicinity!!

This is a familiar sight as the nest building continues.

Every visit we see something new and on this day it included some Skimmers on our path,

more fish beds than we could keep track of,

and one of the biggest gators we've ever had the trepidation to walk past. This one was cleverly disguised with plant material.

Even I was timid walking past that beast!

My attention was focused on some ducks on the shoreline when something else happened right next to us.

Well then.

Material for the new nest was gathered soon thereafter.

A snake had met its demise and lay on the path. 

Unlike our previous recent visits, this time the weather was very warm. As in I was very, very, glad to be wearing a sleeveless dress. Another thing to note in the photo above is the size of the lens on the man in the distance's camera. Can't see it on your phone? Find a way to enlarge it because it was seriously one of the largest I've seen out and about! So many firsts on this visit including the snake finding.

Finally, from that visit, I saw this little fellow land on the reeds in front of us and I've not the slightest idea on the identification. Not that I didn't try, but I came up short. So cute, right? No doubt, someone will come to my aid.

Oops, I got ahead of myself.  These little fellows are just too cute not to show off, although according to this link,  Pied-Billed Grebe, are very common year round, my sightings have been few and far between.

When I began blogging I would just sit down when the mood struck. Somehow I've gotten into the once a week habit over time. This is my first post to change things up a little bit. We shall see if the "mood strikes me" model works anymore.

It's Camellia season and there are a bunch of lovely ones out there which we will visit in my next post. Until then, here's a beauty!

your friend,

Gail