Wonders of Creation 2

On a foggy Wednesday morning we arrived at the South Padre Island World Birding Center at 8.



It was a great morning to watch birds. This large flock of laughing gulls was making a whole lot of noise.



A few at a time flew down to the water for their morning bath.



We saw a number of herons and egrets, including this great blue heron.



I think this is a reddish egret.



And these two birds are Louisiana or tricolored herons.






This white ibis spent time preening, as well as watching the gulls.



There was a pied-billed grebe.



I think this is a willet. If I am wrong, on this bird or any other, please post a comment with a correction. I am fairly new at this.



We also saw an American crocodile.



And sand crabs.



After the fog cleared off, we climbed to the top of the viewing tower. There is a large boardwalk system there.




It was a great day for bird watching. There are always lots of birds when there is water. The next best place to find them is at a feeder.

Wonders of Creation 1

We decided to get away for a couple of days and visit the Gulf Coast. We spent two nights on South Padre Island. On the way there, we visited the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. Wow! The last zoo we visited was in Phoenix and there the emphasis is on desert animals. In Brownsville, it is all about tropical animals. First we checked out the gorillas. We have heard several people talking about the mother gorilla with her baby. We didn't see them, but we enjoyed watching the male.



He climbed a palm tree, then used the dead frond for a fan or shade, I guess.



Isn't this snowy egret beautiful?



Did you know that God appreciates contortionists? Just look at these American flamingos.







The spider monkeys look like they are all arms and legs.



The Galapagos tortoise was munching some hay.



Birds come in all the colors of the rainbow, like this scarlet ibis and green-winged macaw.





And the violaceous tutaco (honestly, that is what the sign said).



I don't know what these birds are, but I like them.





The double-wattled cassowary is colorful.



I thought this baby pigmy hippopotamus was cute.



I think it takes a sense of humor to create a zebra, don't you?



This is a saltwater crocodile. I've never seen a white croc before.



The komodo dragon looks more like a lizard or dinosaur, I think.



These are on a very few of the many photos we took Tuesday. Wednesday, we went to the South Padre Island World Birding Center. (More on that in the next post.) By the time we finished there, I had filled the 2 gig memory card in my camera.

Lessons: (1) God is so good to surround us with these wonders of creation.
(2) Never leave without the equipment needed to download photos to the computer hard drive.