Howdy folks! My apologies, it has been a while since hearing from me. Been a bit of a struggle with my injury and the therapy exercises are pretty much wiping me out after the 4th session of the day. The thought of then trying to type with one hand turns into a frustration bridge too far. The good news is every day is an improvement and more of a check of my expectations than a criticism of the healing progress. Linda can confirm, I’m hard to handle when not getting my miles in – fortunately, I have been able to walk ~7 miles a day so that is burning some of the crazies off. A heaping dose of gratitude to Brad for holding down the Intrigued complex while I’m trying to get better. Figured we would give him a rest from having to deal with not only posting, but also keeping those pesky lawyers in line – like trying to get mercury back in the bottle. Note, did anyone else use to have quicksilver races on the school bus when they were kids? We use to put drops in the channels in the tread between the seats and bet on which one would make it to the back first – it was a different time for sure ha. I digress, how about we get to today’s feathered feature of the day.
Hit the jump to read more about this glamorous Heron.
In honor of “trying” to accelerate this healing process, thought it would be fitting to go with a “try” of a different sort – a Tricolored Heron! As typing to the right of the ‘H’ is a pain in the GrASShopper Sparrow (link here), this will be more of a visual post than a textual one.
In a recent post, Brad took you through all the details of this lovely Tricolored Heron (link here), so I am just going to focus on the location where this particular specimen was found – South Padre Island. In particular, the South Padre Island Convention Center (link here).
You may be asking yourself, why is a Tricolored Heron hanging out in a convention center – easy, to see the Blue Herons in concert of course! (link here). (Mental note, I must NOT go to music sites, it just depresses me as I will be unable to drum for many months to come aaaarrrggghhhh.) Joking aside, this Tri was actually hanging outside the center enjoying the waters of the Laguna Madre Bay.
I have talked a LOT about how wonderful the SPI Birding and Nature Center is on the island. It is in my top 5 birding locations and we never pass up the chance to visit when we are hiding out from the freezing temps of the Midwest (link here). With that said, we will admit it is a bit expensive – $10/day for adults and only offer annual passes ($75) which doesn’t fit our limited visits. I look at it (and all payed admissions) as price per bird and there are ALWAYS good birds there that are very human tolerant giving great opportunities for gallery shots… and they have some monster Gators for the bonus! It just so happens there is a cheaper alternative at the Convention Center which sits right next door. In fact, their boardwalks parallel a large section of the Birding Center.
This free alternative can net you many of the same species that hang out next door, case in point, this Tricolored specimen. It is also less traveled giving you a lot more intimate experience with whatever happens to be hanging out in the reeds. Our Heron here had zero interest in our presence giving me ample time to try out different settings and angles producing probably my favorite series of this elegant creature.
If there is a downside to the Convention Center nature trail/boardwalk, I would have to say the vegetation is significantly denser and tighter to the boardwalk. Anything that hangs back a bit into the reeds or mangroves is probably going to go unnoticed and getting a clean shot of a bird – say the Mangrove Warbler, would be very difficult on that side. Should have mentioned this earlier, the $10 fee to get the Mangrove Warbler at the Birding Center is WORTH IT (someday I’ll feature that beauty!).
If you do happen to make it to the Convention Center, be sure and check out the tidal pools and the mud flats to the right of the convention center. Recommend a 4 wheel drive vehicle if you intend to go out on the flats. Load up an empty digital card as you will likely find yourself filling it up with all the shorebirds that hang out there (Peeps, Plovers, Oystercatchers, Skimmers and maybe if you are lucky one or two Gulls ha), Save some shots for the sunset as they are absolutely gorgeous – Linda just won first place in a “reflections” theme competition at our local fair with a snap she took there last January.
Grab yourself a bottle of wine, push play on some lovely romantic Blue Herons tunes, kick back and watch the sunset next to your special someone – life really doesn’t get any better.
Life Intrigued 