Northerly winds

The winds were pretty brisk today out of the north.  A good wind does seem to lessen the biting mosquitoes, so I can report that I didn’t get one bite today!  That’s something to celebrate.

 

This afternoon, Emma and I took a drive down all the roads of the refuge that are open to the public. 

The northerly winds kind of ruffled this great blue heron’s feathers!  There was not much going on, bird wise, but we did get a few pics.

There seems to be more loggerhead shrikes around this year, and the ever present neo-tropical cormorants.

I visited Colin in the VIS, and he only had seven people stop in today for a total of $2.00 in sales.  Hardly seems worth it to me to keep the visitor’s center open at that rate.  :(

I did see a couple of Northern shovelers on Shoveler Pond, but there hasn’t been much activity on the pond this year.  I found out that it’s because the plan is to let the pond go dry.  When it does, the refuge will reconstruct the area and make improvements.  Shoveler’s  Pond was a fresh water oasis that was inundated with salt water from hurricane Ike.  There is a two mile drive around the pond that will be paved, and the pond will be deepened to provide a reservoir for surrounding moist soil units.  I don’t know how many years it will take to accomplish those plans.

There are many great egrets on the refuge no matter when you visit here.  As some of you may know, egrets suffered great losses at the turn of the 20th century as they were slaughtered to obtain their plumes for women’s hats.  Thankfully, that doesn’t happen any longer.  I think they are rather elegant birds.

I couldn’t end the day without a picture of another fine red-tailed hawk.  They really are abundant this year.

 

I was surprised this morning to find that I now have 100 followers.  I never expected that!  You bloggers know that most followers are people that you have never met.  It’s like having 100 new friends.  How nice is that?

 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy