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Posts Tagged ‘postaday2011’

New Paths to Walk in Search of Birds

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2011| 2 Comments »

“Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books … “  —  George Washington Carver

Chasing Birds

 

While I didn't have my camera the day I walked in the Dow Woods, I've taken it often to the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, where Lewis and I have trod this boardwalk through Bobcat Woods. -- Photo by Pat Bean

A new addition to Texas’ wildlife sanctuary complex, the Dow Woods, opened this past week. Located just five minutes from my son, Lewis’, home in Lake Jackson. We two avid birders had to check it out of course.

The 338-acre site, designated as part of the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge, currently includes two loop trails, totaling 2.5 miles, that run along Bastrop Bayou. Plans are in the works to put in more trails in the near future.

The land was donated to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by Dow Chemical, which was actually responsible for creating the town of Lake Jackson in the 1940s so its employees would have a place to live.

Lake Jackson, where our family lived from 1956-1971. is called the City of Enchantment, partly because of the vast number of trees that were spared when the swampy forest was cleared and drainage canals were dug so the land would be livable.

 

A crested caracara that I spotted at the San Bernard NWR. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 It’s nice to see that in a time when corporate greed is so rampant that a large employer is still both giving to the community and conserving the landscape.

The actions, along with the jobs the company provides the area, ease a bit the large footprint the chemical plant also has on the local landscape.

Lewis, whose favorite birding site, is the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge’s main location, is delighted that this new addition to is so close to his home. And we both found it a delightful place to walk and look for birds.

I, however, was a bit upset with myself because while I remembered to bring my binoculars, I left my camera at home.

If you’re in the neighborhood, you should drop by. Dow Woods is located on Old Angleton (or County Road 288) about a mile north of FM 2004.

I plan to go back soon and take my camera. Perhaps I’ll see you there.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity

Posted in Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , on October 23, 2011| 4 Comments »

 

The magic of a moonlit sky makes anything seem possible. -- Photo by Pat Bean

“I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour.  I dripped it carelessly, Ah!  I didn’t know, I held opportunity.”  ~Hazel Lee

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A Grackle With a Taste for Tacos

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on October 22, 2011| 6 Comments »

 “Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.” – David Brent

 

Female great-tailed grackle at Surfside -- Photo by Pat Bean

 

 

Chasing Birds

The photo on the left, taken this week at the Surfside Jetty where my son, Lewis, and I began a day of birding, shows the female great-tailed grackle that was pestering my son, Lewis, for a bite of his breakfast taco. Her male comrade was a bit more standoffish.

Great-tailed grackles are one of the birds that make every birder’s list if they live anywhere in Texas. The smaller common grackle is a bit more choosy about where it lives in the state, and the third North American grackle, the boat-tailed, even choosier. It can only be found along the shores of Texas’ Gulf Coast, and then mostly only on the more northern end. Florida is the boat-tail’s favorite habitat.

On this day of chasing down birds, the great-tailed grackle was the only one of the three species Lewis and I saw, although on most bird outings in the area we get the common, too, and occasionally even a boat-tailed grackle.

 

Male great-tailed grackle. Note the bright yellow eye.

It’s easy to tell the common and the great-tailed apart simply by size. The common is a 12-inch bird and the great-tailed a 15-18-inch bird, the male being the larger of the sexes.

The boat-tailed, meanwhile, is close in size to the great-tailed but with a very round head. compared to a very-flat head for the great-tailed. You can also easily tell the two apart if the boat-tailed is vocal – and it usually is. Its voice is more coarse and gravelly than those of the other two grackles. .

The females of all three species are varying shades of brown.

Grackles, which often roam about in large flocks, are considered nuisance birds by some. And while that might not be far off the mark, since they prefer harvesting a farmer’s crops more than living off uncultivated land, I still enjoying watching them.

Perhaps it’s because I admire their attitude, such as the one displayed by the female this day that wasn’t going to be intimidated out of any Taco droppings by we mere humans. Or perhaps it’s because I find the iridescent purple and green sheen on the males’ feathers a work of art.

Or perhaps it’s simply because all birds fascinate me.

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A Landscape for Pirates and Birds

Posted in Birds, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on October 21, 2011| 2 Comments »

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” Aristotle  

Boardwalk entry into Lafitte Cove Nature Preserve -- Photo by Pat Bean

Chasing Birds

I found myself surrounded by pricy homes this past week, walking a Galveston Island landscape that once belonged to the infamous Jean Lafitte. He came to the island in 1817, which at the time was mostly uninhabited except for Karankawa Indians. 

Black-throated green warbler -- Photo by Joanne Kamo http://www.pbase.com/jitams

Lafitte battled the Indians and used the island, with its protected bay, as a base for his smuggling and pirating activities until 1821, when he made the mistake of attacking an American merchant ship. The schooner, the USS Enterprise, was sent then to oust him.

Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, but before he did he burned the settlement and fortress he had created, and is said to have taken a huge amount of treasure away with him.

I hadn’t come to the place for its historical significance, however. I had come in search of birds in the small sanctuary that sat in the middle of the residential neighborhood.

Marker near the nature preserve noting that Lafitte fought a battle with the Karankawa Indians at this site. -- Photo by Pat Bean

In honor of Lafitte– although I’m not sure what there is to honor, except that perhaps along with his nefarious pirating activities he helped Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans in 1815 – the sanctuary was dubbed Lafitte’s Cove Nature Preserve.

Its boardwalk and paved paths wander past a wetlands area, a small lake and though thick woodlands; its location, just inland from the gulf, makes it an ideal stopover for birds migrating along the coast.

On the day my son, Lewis, and I birded the preserve, we saw mottled ducks, blue-winged teals, mallards, white-eye vireos, orange-crowned warblers, cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, black-throated-green warblers and blue-headed vireos, which I thought was a pretty good number for a very windy day in October.

Lewis, who had birded the small sanctuary in May, said he had seen at least triple the number of species on that outing.

Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if every residential neighborhood saved a small patch of land for the birds. Don’t you agree?

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Roseate Spoonbills and Great Egrets

Posted in Birds, Nature, tagged , , , , , on October 20, 2011| 5 Comments »

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”  ~John Burroughs

Birding Day

I abandoned my blog this morning, and spent the day out birding with my son Lewis. I just barely got back, and words always fail me this time of day. So I’ll simply share one of the photos I took today. Hopefully you’ll think it worth my usual 350 words.

Great

Great egrets and roseate spoonbils at Surfside -- Photo by Pat Bean

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Lake Albert Captures My Imagination

Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 18, 2011| 6 Comments »

“…we turned a point of the hill on our left, and came suddenly in sight of another and much larger lake, which, along its eastern shore, was closely bordered by the high black ridge which walled it in by a precipitous face … Spread out over a length of 20 miles, the lake, when we first came in view, presented a handsome sheet of water; and I gave to it the name Lake Albert, in honor of the chief of the corps to which I belong. …” John Fremont

Lake Albert's southeast end from Highway 395. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Highway 395 stretches for 1,370 miles – from the Canadian border in Washington, down through Oregon, California, Nevada and back into California, where it ends just about 150 miles short of the Mexican border. .

I drove 730 miles of it heading south last month, beginning in Pendleton, Oregon, and ending when I turned west onto Highway 120 that would take me up and over 9,943-foot Tioga Pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and down into Yosemite Valley.

Much of the drive was on steep, narrow, winding roads with little traffic. I loved every moment of the journey.

Lake Albert from Albert Rim -- Wikipedia photo

The route winds through Oregon’s Battle Mountain State Park, the Umatilla, Malheur, Modoc, Toiyabe and Inyo national forests, and the X L Ranch Indian Reservation, passing numerous lakes on the way. There’s Goose Lake in Oregon, located near Fandango Pass that was used by early settlers to California; Nevada’s Washoe Lake, located between Reno and Carson City and popular with windsurfers; and Mono Lake in California, which was on my bucket list because of its importance to migrating shore birds.

A smaller lake that captured my attention was Oregon’s Lake Albert. Like Mono, it is too salty for fish to live in its waters. It has, however, a dense population of brine shrimp that make it a popular dining stopover for migrating grebes, phalaropes, terns, avocets, geese, stilts, ibis and other birds.

Albert Rim geology marker -- Photo by Pat Bean

Canada geese were the main occupants on the narrow lake the day I drove the 15-mile section of Highway 395 that overlooks the east side of the lake from just feet away. I stopped several times to admire the lonely and lovely view of pink hills reflecting onto the water from the opposite shore.

I also found myself fascinated by the geology marker that explained the lava ridge running parallel to the lake. Known as the Albert Rim, it’s one of the highest fault scarps in the United States.

Except for the highway, which ran between the basalt ridge and the lake, and an occasional passing vehicle, I suspected the landscape still looked pretty much as it did during John Fremont’s mapping expedition in central and southern Oregon back in the 1840s.

It’s rare to find a place so little impacted by we humans – and wonderful.

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Surprise College Souvenir Takes Me to The Great Wall

Posted in Travel, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

“The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.” – Ashley Montagu

A piece of the Great Wall of China in Walla Walla, Washington. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Call me weird if you like, but I think the ladybug I find on the rose is even more beautiful than the rose itself. And it’s not just because I know that ladybugs eat the aphids that eat the roses. It’s mostly because coming across a ladybug is usually a surprise.

I like surprises. Seeing things I don’t expect to see. It’s actually what I enjoy best about travel.

Now that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy seeing the magnificent sights travel is all about. One wouldn’t want to go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful, or to New York and not see Niagara Falls.

But the little unexpected things along the way are what put the magic in any journey.

One of the more surprising surprises I got in September took place in Walla Walla, Washington.

I went there with my friend, Sherry, who lives in Milton-Freewater, Oregon. As we drove the eight miles from her home to the larger town to do some shopping, we got to talking about the places we wished we could afford to visit in the near future.

“Ayers Rock in Australia and the Great Wall of China top my list,” I said.

“Oh! Would like to touch a piece of the Great Wall,” she asked?

She then took me to the Walla Walla University, from which she had graduated.

The UFO above an eye exam sign on a Wal-Mart in Roswell, New Mexico, was a jolly fun surprise. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Hidden in a bushy alcove, on the brick wall of a campus building, was indeed a piece of the Great Wall. It had been incorporated into the building as one of the bricks. Above it was a plaque that read: “A piece of the China Wall, donated in 1941 by John L. Christian, Class of 1936, missionary to Burma.”

The touch of the rough, gray rock felt magical, and my fingers tingled.

My brain, however, was thinking that such casual taking of a piece of history today could land one in serious trouble. Of course things were different back then, when everyone was expected to bring home “real” souvenirs, like a piece of lava from Craters of the Moon or a rock-hard log from the Petrified Forest.

Back in the 1940s,  the “Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints” motto hadn’t yet become conservation’s cry.  While I’m glad it’s now the standard, I’m also glad I got to actually touch a piece of China’s history.

It was a magnificent surprise to add to my travel memories.

Perhaps one day I’ll get to touch the actual wall. Of course, given my current economic reality, that would indeed be a surprise.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Possibilities

Posted in Art, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , , , , on October 16, 2011| 6 Comments »

My shadow and Maggie become part of the basket ball court art. -- Photo by Pat Bean

 “ Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” – Pablo Picasso

Travels With Maggie

The park across the street from my son’s home in Lake Jackson has a basketball court, but I’ve never seen it used for that purpose.

 

The big green snake with big teeth -- Photo by Pat Bean

Perhaps that is why some young artists – I suspects students from the school next door to the park – decided to brighten it up a bit. While I was away for the summer, they dabbed the rough cement court with color.

The bright images include a river running across the court, a few houses and trees, a hop scotch layout and a couple of gigantic snakes, the kinds of things young artists have been doodling on paper since they could hold a crayon.

I found it enchanting – and so in tune with the week’s photo challenges about possibilities.

 

Grackles join the cacophony of color -- Photo by Pat Bean

“A picture of many colors proclaims images of many thoughts.” – Donna Favors

 

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A Sassy Squirrel Taunts Maggie’s Patience and My Thoughts

Posted in Favorite Hikes, Nature, Wildflowers, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2011| 8 Comments »

“If we had a keen vision of all that is ordinary in human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which is the other side of silence.” – George Eliot

Some squirrels can be downright sassy. -- Photo by Pat Bean

Travels With Maggie

Unlike all the other squirrels my canine traveling companion, Maggie, and I approached in the park early this morning, one didn’t quickly scamper away at the sight of us.

It held its ground, engaging us in a stare off. We got to within about 20 feet of it before Maggie could stand it no longer. With a sudden spurt of energy, she raced toward it.

She had 25-feet before her retractable leash would pull her up short, but she stopped before she hit the end. I think she knew, even before she started the chase, that she didn’t have a chance. She’s had a lot of experience with sassy squirrels during our many walks.

A small widow's tear blossom beneath a bush finally got my brain off squirrels and onto the wonders that Mother Nature always surprises me with when I take a walk. -- Photo by Pat Bean

The squirrel, which of course had headed up the nearest tree, was now looking down from a low branch chattering away in what could only be scorn for our intrusion. It had decided we were trespassers, that it owned the park and we had no business being here.

What, I wondered, had made this squirrel challenge us while all the others ran away.

It was like asking what makes some humans adventurous and some timid, why some of us love roller coaster rides and others shun what they consider such dangerous tomfoolery.

I often see parallels between animals and humans. I guess that’s why they’re often used to describe us humans, as in sly as a fox, slow as a snail, graceful as a cat, stubborn as a mule or swift as an eagle.

I never heard one, however, comparing us to a squirrel. What, I wondered would the adjective be: Sassy, brave, quick or foolish came to mind.

That squirrel hadn’t just taunted Maggie, it had taunted my brain.

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The Long Green Thing Surprise

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on October 14, 2011| 3 Comments »

 

 “The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain, and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.” – Erma Bombeck

D.C. with his long green thing during one of his Army deployments.

Family Memories

“Hey Mom, I brought back a surprise for you from Afghanistan,” was the message I got from my oldest son, D.C. I was in Idaho at the time, and the only thing I wanted from Afghanistan was my son, home, safely.

Later, I wondered what the surprise could be.

“It’s a long green thing,” my daughter-in-law, Cindi, hinted.

It took a few minutes, but then I burst out laughing.

“Oh, you mean his Christmas stocking,” I said.

This is a thing that goes back many, many years, back to the time when my son was a pre-teenager. It was a time when money was in extremely short supply in our family, and so our Christmas stockings were just that – everyone’s own clean sock. And the kids always found the biggest ones they owned to hang up.

Now D.C. always was an ingenious kid. He chose his long Boy Scout knee sock, but decided it still wasn’t big enough. So he cut the foot off one of the socks and sewed the rest of the stocking to the top of the other one. It was such a brilliant idea that he didn’t even get punished for the deed. I think I filled it up with oranges that first Christmas.

The pillow, given to me by my oldest daughter, Deborah, that sits on the couch in my RV. Laughter is good for the soul is my motto.

In the meantime, as kids do, D.C. grew up, joined the Army, married, had kids of his own and made the military his career for the next 35 years. It was during one of his three tours in Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot that I came upon that long-forgotten green stocking.

As a joke, I filled it up with goodies like smoked oysters, canned chili, Vienna sausage, nuts, toy cars, hand warmers, a Pez dispenser and a heck of a lot of other stuff and sent it to him that year for Christmas.

He’s made sure the stocking was returned to me every year since.

I guess in thankfulness for my son’s safe return from the war zone, his upcoming retirement and all the laughter that stocking has provided the family over the years, I’ll have to fill it up yet one more time.

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