Sunday, October 21, 2018

Last Day on the island

This is our last day here until the next visit early in 2019. It has been a good trip. A drizzly day today although Galen did go out this morning for a little while. This afternoon we decided to go for an early mid-afternoon dinner. Went to Daddy's. We have both been hungry for scallops. And we did enjoy them along with the margaritas, cold boiled shrimp and sides. We did skip dessert!



We decided to make one last stop at the convention center to see what was flying! Turns out it was a good idea.
                                                       Female Hooded Warbler


Grey Cat Bird


Black Throat Green Warbler


Great Blue heron


Great Blue heron hiding in the grasses


Roseate Spoonbill


Roseate Spoonbill, Black neck Stilts and Mottled ducks


Roseate Spoonbills



Short - billed Dowitcher


Brown Pelicans



Tri-Color Heron


Not the greatest-had a few empty sky pictures especially when the spoonbills took off and caught the wind. But you can tell this in a pelican!


Not a great picture but here goes
 A Common Gallinule and short billed Dowitcher



Last but not least we had an unexpected visitor in our motel room tonight. Yes, the door is open so I can listen to the ocean.

A Rambur's forktail damselfly! He landed on the light where I am working!



A Few More Birds and critters from South Padre!

 I think they are all labeled correctly. Galen will correct me if not! Galen goes to the birding center in the mornings then we either go to the convention center grounds in the afternoon or take a drive.

                             Immature Tennessee Warbler   SPI Convention Center grounds




                           Reddish Egret-SPI Convention Center grounds boardwalk






American Oyster catcher-Zapata Boat Ramp



Laughing Gull-Zapata Boat Ramp


Short- Billed Dowitcher -Zapata Boat Ramp


Black Neck Stilts-Zapata Boat Ramp



Great Blue Heron - Pier 19 SPI



Willets-Pier 19 SPI


Jack Rabbit-SPI Convention Center Grounds




                                                          That's all folks!


Trip to South Padre island

We are in South Padre right now. Not spectacular weather wise-no fantastic sunsets or sunrises this trip. In fact non to speak of unless we see something tonight or tomorrow! But only one day where we pretty much stayed in the motel. Galen has been able to go across the street and get a lot of pictures of birds, especially warblers. Some were new lifers for him. the ones we came to find that were usually not in this part of Texas were chased out by the weather front that arrived when we did. So we missed out on those.  We did however have an Eastern Whip-Poor-Will  in the grassy area by our motel. Galen took a picture and we discovered he was still there the next day. He was hurt, think he had a hurt wing. Galen knows someone who works at the SPI Birding and Nature Center just across the street. He came and got the bird. It spent the night on the Island then the next day it went to the raptor rehabilitation center at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville.

                                                         Eastern Whip-Poor-Will


Hoping he will be able to be released again once healed. He is another one rarely seen in this part of Texas.

Galen bought me a new camera right before we left for the Island. I wanted something that had the capability of getting some decent pictures of everything! You know nothing where I had to change a lens etc. That's for him! And something where the quality was comparable to the camera on my phone! He bought me the Canon G3X.  Am learning to use it and I am liking it! Here's a few from yesterday I took on  the grounds at the Convention Center.

BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER


FEMALE HOODED WARBLER


GREY CATBIRD


MALE HOODED WARBLER


IMMATURE ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK


IMMATURE ROSE BREASTED GROSBEAK


IMMATURE RUBY THROAT HUMMINGBIRD


There are more from a few days ago but need to get them labeled.  All for now

Monday, October 1, 2018

September Wrap Up

It has been a busy month putting blocks into quilts to be sent to Quilts of Compassion for their deployment to the Carolinas later this year. Got the quilts together that have been ready for just such a need. Those are off to the group now. About the middle of the month I found a 140 blocks from various swaps over the years-string blocks. They were 7.5 inches square.

                         These have since been made into 4 quilts of 35 blocks each.


As soon as I get these back from my wonderful quilted they will also be headed to Quilts of Compassion along with some from friends. Yes, am keeping Kerry @ tincanquilting.com busy!

I am part of a small group of quilting friends that have become very close. One of our members does a lot for others and we decided it was time for her to have a quilt of her own. She only makes small ones and we wanted her to have one she could curl up in! One of the members found a fun pattern. We each made the string blocks in her colors. Kerry got it quilted for me and we sent her a surprise. She has it now so I can show the picture.


                                                     It's a nice size for snuggling!

I did manage to get 10 blocks made this month for my Kaffe quilt block of the month. Need to make 10 more though. Fun making snowball blocks!


We took off one day for the day and drove out to Kerrville. I can not go to Kerrville without a stop at Creations. My batik collection grew along with one Kaffe.


Another day we finally made it to our Korean Grocery store H-Mart.
First time there and we had a fun checking it out. Loved the fresh produce and fruit section. Having lived in Asia for 10 years we enjoyed seeing some things we had not seen since leaving there.





That pretty much sums up September 2018!


                                             Linking up with Small Quilts for some eye candy