February 19

Wednesday, February 19, we toured Bahia Grande with some of the other refuge volunteers.  On a short side trip farther down Hwy 48 we viewed the USS Forrestal, a decommissioned aircraft carrier being dismantled for scrap at the Port of Brownsville.

I lifted this photo of the carrier as it rounded the jetty at South Padre the day before, 7 hours late due to the dense fog - we are at Boca Chica beach that day - in the fog!

A stop at Zapata boat ramp and fishing pier resulted on the surprise find of a GLAUCOUS GULL... it had been reported at Boca Chica for several weeks, maybe the fog was too much for him.

The tour with the volunteers was a nice change from the visitor services tours, I could relax and enjoy the birds without having to interpret and record species and numbers correctly. We were treated to herds of Nilgai and hoards of Orange-crowns and Yellow-rumps hawking mosquitoes. 

A pair of Cactus Wren successfully defended their yucca from an intruding Kestrel to the delight of  all observers...

They put together a coordinated attack...

culminating with a fierce tug on tail feathers

resulting in a complete victory.

I never tire of looking at these guys...












and they never tire of looking back.



Another good day on the refuge!