Yesterday I went to the Gulf Coast Master Naturalist meeting in Houston via Galveston, where I had arranged to get some recycled pots for plant projects. I went via the Bolivar/Galveston ferry and gave myself a little reward by stopping at the Jetty.
WOW! What a reward! Avocets, Avocets, Avocets - by the thousands - sitting and sleeping or jumping up into flight, only to land back in the same positions and get back to their naps.
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| A few of the thousands of Avocets |
And hundreds of skimmers. Several flocks came in and joined the group while I was there.
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Skimmers in the sky and foreground along with godwits.
About one third of the avocets are in the background. |
Other birds there included gulls, royal terns, western willets, Hudsonian godwits, western sandpippers, great egrets and double crested cormorants.
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| Hudsonian Godwit and Western Willet |
The two subspecies of willets are very interesting to me. For years, I had to relearn willets each fall and spring. Finally I learned that we have the eastern version in the spring/summer and the western version in the fall winter. The western is paler, a little hunkier, and has a heavier bill.
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| Feeding Hudsonian godwits |
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| Feeding western sandpipers |
I was also able to see several species of flowers in bloom. A good thing for the few monarch butterflies still around. (And by the way, my Galveston friend has two Monarch caterpillars on very small Butterfly weed that I grew from cuttings taken in August.)
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| Still not sure what this is. |
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| Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella) |
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Smoth Oxeye ( Heliopsis helianthoides) This is supposed to bloom June - September but
obviously it can't tell our crazy seasons. |
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And I was able to get a couple of hundred free pots. And then attend and interesting meeting. A very good day.
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