Category Archives: On The Road

Traveling in our Coach

~Weekly Photo Challenge: Intricate

The  Daily Post – Photo Challenge – Week of May 2, 2015 – “Intricate.

Hubby and I like to hike and on occasion we come across a Golden Orb Spider. They create a huge and intricate web.

Banana Spider
This photo was taken at Lake Louisa State Park, near Clermont, Florida.
A Side View
These two photos were taken at Ray Roberts State Park near Dallas, Texas

Golden Orb

The following photos are Milkweed Seeds. I took these photos while visiting a local park where I live. I think they have an interesting and intricate form.

Milkweed
Milkweed
Bursting Milkweed Pod
Bursting Milkweed Pod
It looks like the silk from a spiders web.
It looks like the silk from a spider’s web.

The featured image is a photo I took at another local park located off Highway 34 as you would travel west from Loveland to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It is early morning rain drops on a spider’s web. The header photo are two Lady Bugs doing what they do to create more Lady Bugs! Photo taken in my yard.

I hope you enjoy my Intricate photos.

~Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion

The Daily Post – Photo Challenge – Week of April 24, 2015 – “Motion.”

In Rocky Mountain National Park
In Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado).
Annie, running in the pasture.
Annie, running in the pasture (Mississippi).
"This feels so good" Hot Rod rolling in the grass.
“This feels so good” Hot Rod rolling in the grass (Mississippi).
Coming in for a landing!
Coming in for a landing (Florida).
Fiesty Female  Wild Turkey
Fiesty Female Wild Turkey (Florida).
Snowing
Snowing (Colorado).
"Come soar with me!"
“Come soar with me!” Florida
Soaring
Osprey (Florida).
Over it goes (Montana).
Canada Goose, over the falls (Montana).

~Sandwich Tern

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~

Whats on your mind little tern, 

standing at water’s edge in the early morning light,

as you watch the gulf waters churn. 

With waves pounding the shore, 

luring you with its rhymed verse, 

hunger and fading light brings signs of yore.

~

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Back in October, 2014…

As I walked along the shore, hoping to watch the sunrise, I came upon this Sandwich Tern. He, just like me, was all alone on this particular morning and together we watched the day begin.

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I think this is an adult non-breeding bird. Notice the yellowish bill tip.
Enjoying an early morning bath in the Gulf
Enjoying an early morning bath in the Gulf
Sandwich Tern
Jumped right in.
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This Sandwich Tern gave me a gift on this morning; he was number 375.

Sharing with:

`Eileen at Viewing Nature with Eileen for Saturday’s Critters

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2015/04/saturdays-critters-70.html

~Wrapping Up at High Island & Rollover Bay

A few more photos from The Smith Oaks Rookery

Roseate Spoonbill
Roseate Spoonbill

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A few more photos from Rollover Bay

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Just to show he was there - Reddish Egret
Just to show he was there – Reddish Egret (He was too far out in the Bay to capture a good photo.)

During our travels next winter we hope to return to High Island, Texas during migration. It is a lovely site seeing all the migrating birds stopping for a rest prior to heading to their nesting or summer grounds.

Our stop there in March was fun! I had seen, for the first time, the Black-bellied Whistling Duck a few months before while staying at Myakka River State Park and the Reddish Egret at Fort De Soto County Park. I wonder where this Reddish guy is heading?

Sharing with:

~Eileen at Saturday Critters at

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/2015/04/saturdays-critters-69.html

~A Ride Along the Bolivar Peninsula

Short-billed Dowitcher
Short-billed Dowitcher

March, 2015  in Texas…

On the second day, of our two day stay near Hight Island, Texas we decided to take a ride to the Gulf of Mexico. We drove along the Bolivar Peninsula until we reached the Galveston ferry and retraced our drive back toward High Island. We were not interested in going into Galveston.

As we crossed over Rollover Pass we noticed what looked like birds near the shoreline of the south end of Rollover Bay. I am glad we turned into this parking lot, where people were fishing, some were  birding, but mostly they were enjoying this bay that leads into the Gulf of Mexico.

A couple tidbits of interesting history about Rollover Pass – it is a man-made strait that cuts through private property on the Bolivar Peninsula and links the Gulf of Mexico with Rollover Bay and East Bay in Galveston. Rollover Pass earned its name from the practice of smugglers who, from the days of Spanish rule through prohibition, avoided the Galveston customs station by rolling barrels of import or export merchandise over the narrowest park of the  peninsula.

Today people visit this area, from all over the world, to camp, fish and bird. We must have hit this area just when a few hundred birds decided they needed a rest. We saw Gulls, Terns, Pelicans, Egrets, Dowitchers, Godwits, Avocets, Willets and I am sure some that I missed. Migrating birds as they rested at Rollover Bay on this day, March 24, 2015.

Short-billed Dowitcher
Short-billed Dowitcher
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Resting. I think that is a Willet resting with them.
Black Skimmer
Black Skimmer
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Black-Skimmers in the background.
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This is my first time seeing so many Black Skimmers at once. Avocets and other Terns in the background.
"Get your foot off of mt face."
“Get your foot off of mt face.”
Laughing Gull - Adult Breeding
Laughing Gull – Adult Breeding

More photos to follow of our time spent at Rollover Bay, Bolivar Peninsula, Texas.

Sharing with:

~Charlotte at Prairie Birder for “Feathers on Friday”

at https://prairiebirder.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/feathers-on-friday-144/#comment-7176