Walking in Gilbert

Our daily routine includes walking 10,000 steps, which is about 5 miles.  Most of the time we walk around our resort but sometimes we want a change of scenery.  One day we ventured out to the Gilbert Water Ranch.  There are several ponds where the water district stores their water.  In a desert, the water quickly attracts birds and other water-loving wildlife.

We saw these turtles sunning themselves on a log.

There are numerous varieties of ducks and other water birds, including the long-legged stilts in the upper right of this photo.  Their colors make them look like they are wearing tuxedos.

We enjoyed this egret.  It was standing still, waiting for a fish to swim up for dinner.

Once in a while, we will look for more interesting places to walk.

Turtle Hospital

During our time on South Padre Island, we visited the hospital for injured sea turtles.



This facility nurses injured sea turtles and attempts to return them to the wild. If that is not possible, they provide a tank for them to live in. To learn more about Sea Turtle Inc, click here.

We watched staff and/or volunteers remove this turtle from its tank. If you look closely, you can see the prostheses the turtle wears two hours a day, learning to swim with it replacing a missing flipper.



After removing the prostheses, the turtle is transported back to its tank.



This is the walkway leading to the turtle hospital.



Here is a similar turtle (or the same one), swimming in its tank.



There were a number of children there when we visited. They really enjoyed the tanks where they could see all sides of the turtle.



We were amazed at how many turtles are injured at sea, often by debris in the water or fishing nets.

The next morning, before leaving the island, we went out for our run. We saw the sun rising through these palm trees.



And over the water. These two photos show the same sun from essentially the same viewpoint, ll minutes apart. I just changed the camera settings.






On our first trip to the beach a day earlier, we saw this line of some kind of ducks fly over. Amazing.

Alligators, Bayous and Crab

There you have the ABC's of our Tuesday. We drove the Creole Nature Trail though far south Louisiana. We saw lots of alligators. After we stopped at the Cameron Prairie NWR Visitor Center, we drove their Pintail Trail and Boardwalk.



At first we didn't understand why there was a warning that hiking was not allowed on the trail. That was before we saw this fellow.



And this one.



And this one.



No wonder we couldn't hike. We didn't even get out of the truck to take pictures. As our eyes became trained to see the alligators, they were everywhere. Interesting, but scary We understand why we saw these signs posted in the area.



The Creole Trail goes south through all the bayous and farms between I-10 and the Gulf of Mexico. This is what much of the countryside looks like.



We drove through Cameron, one of the towns hit hard by Hurricane Ike in 2008. First we noticed these new houses built on stilts.



And others built on a small hill of earth as well as stilts.



Someone used to live on this concrete pad. Their home is entirely gone.



It is truly amazing how much damage a hurricane can do.

Further on we made a short trip on a ferry. It only cost $1 to cross the small bayou or river. I think it is a regular part of life for those who live here.



I had read it was blue crab season, but I had no idea how you catch crabs. It seems you tie a sturdy string around a large portion of chicken leg and thigh, then lower it into the water.



When it starts to jiggle, you pull it up and catch the crabs that are trying to gnaw on the chicken leg and put them in a net.



Here you can see how many crab two women had caught and saved in their cooler. You also can see the blue color on the crab legs.



In addition to alligators, bayous and crab, we saw turtles. This one was the road in the state park as we left in the morning.



And we saw these in the wildlife refuge.



We also saw butterflies.



And lots of birds, including this Baltimore (or Northern) Oriole



and an Indigo Bunting



and also this Scarlet Tanager.