Sea Turtle Rescue Station

We went over to S.P.I. for lunch today and stopped in to see the sea turtles at the rescue station. What an interesting place, it is ran on donation, souvenir sales and grants. This lady Lla Loetscher (1904-2000) founded Sea Turtle, Inc. in 1977, with the mission to rehabilitate injured sea turtles and educate the public about their marine environment. This is a young Hawksbill Sea turtle. Yes, they do come a shore to nest from Galveston down the coast of Mexico. Around June the females come a shore, volunteers collect the eggs and take them to a safe nursery then in about 45 days the little turtles hatch and they take them to shore where they crawl into the sea.

The turtles at the station have been hurt by sharks and most can be released. They have several large turtles that are 30 years old and will never be able to live in the sea, like Merry Christmas here a Green Sea turtle.

We picked up a few little souvenirs, but they would like people to purchase the items made by the people who used to hunt turtles and their eggs to encourage them to make a living in making these items. If you are interested in learning more visit www.seaturtleinc.com.

Zoofari

Valley Nature Center

We saw the Vermilion Flycatcher today, it was out catching bugs with the Couch's Kingbird and Yellow-rump warbler right where we were told it would be. After hitting Best Buy, we visited Valley Nature Center in Wesleco, it has a nice visitor's center.
I saw my first wild poinsettia, plus many other native plants to the area. We saw more Chachalacas, Kiskadees and Orange-cap warblers.

We also spotted several cresents, this is a Vesta Cresent I believe. We also saw a Julia and Zebra Heliconian butterflies.

It was just a beautiful day to be out, no wind perfect temp of 72, it has been a bit cool in the early mornings that we have been running our electric heater. It is dry here and there has been several grass fires, I hadn't even thought of that being a problem here.

Bit of this and that

Sunday afternoon we attended a BBQ Birthday Party, the birthday celebrantes have been putting this bash on for 12 years. There were about 100 people there, they furnished the BBQ and everyone brought a side dish. There were 3 bands, each played for about an hour, one of the birthday persons was a band member the singer here in this pic. We were entertained with country and Mexican music. It was a fun afternoon! Monday, Ken volunteered to do some work in the Hugh Ramsey Nature Park, he did some bush removal. I cleaned the RV.
Today, Ken checked and made some calls to get stuff to fix his computer, so he'll be watching the mail now. We did stop at a couple of new places today, one was the Iwo Jima Memorial, this is the original working model from which the bronze was cast from, it is in Washington, DC. We also visited the museum and saw a 30min film on the Battle of Iwo Jima.

We visited Harlingen Lake which is on the birding list, I took this photo of a Yellow throat warbler. We meet another birding couple who told us about the parakeets in Harlingen and a spot where they are supposed to be, but not today. They are staying on S. P. I. and told us where we could see the Purple Sandpipers over there.

It is to be sunny all week and in the mid 70's so it should be a great week to bird. We may even get up early tomorrow to join a birding group at Hugh Ramsey Park.

Out birding

Ken's foot is just fine and the weather turned out to be nice so we've been out several places birding. We've gone back to our favorite place Hugh Ramsey Park and we saw our first Green Kingfisher and Ringed Kingfisher so we'll be going back to try and get photos.
We did another nite tour at Laguna Atascosa NWR, we saw Night Herons, White-tailed Kite which we can add to our life list. We also saw two bob cats, coyote, deer, Spoonbills, Pauraque and several feral pigs which they do not like for all the damage they cause. Our driver found a muddy spot and got stuck so we all got out and the guys pushed the van out.
Today we went to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley S.P. In the entrance they had several feeders and there were about 30 Chachalaca feeding, they were fun to watch. We saw our first White-winged Dove. We find that in the state parks you have to ride their trolley, walk or bicyle or combination.
Ken's laptop crashed so he has to call a Dell technetion and Monday being a holiday he have to wait, but at least he can use mine til his is fixed.

Birding on SPI

Tuesday was windy but we went to S. Padre Island to try some birding but we didn't stay long. Wed. was a beautiful day so we went back and spent the entire day birding.
Last night Ken was making his favorite rice dish in the microwave and he spilt some hot water on his foot now this morning it is blistered. He hasn't tried to put shoes on yet, so we probably won't be doing much til it is better. We are to have rain showers the next couple of days too. Stay safe and warm.

Around Hummingbird Cove

It's turned cool 70s daytime and 40s at night, cold for the locals. Yesterday, it was only 60 and it felt cold to us so we went to a movie, we saw Clint Eastwoods Grand Treno, Ken really liked it for me it was depressing.
This morning some of us from the park toured the Border Patrol Hdqs in Harlingen, it was interesting, they even had a few detained. They are kept there only 48 hours then sent to a bigger center til they are deported home. The agents go through 19 weeks of training, learn Spanish and then they all spend two years working the southern border than they can move on to other places. They are only building fences in areas like towns and cities that are on the border, in open areas they have cameras and sensors. We got to see the monitors, nothing was going on.
Thought you might enjoy a few of the photos I've taken around Hummingbird Cove. Sat. evening we had a one man band entertain us, this Sunday there is a barbeque.