Everybody out of the water!

The cold weather is gone and the temperatures have returned to the normal for this time of year so I am back out hiking and bird watching. This morning I went to a nearby spot that has a lake and several ponds. As I approached the lake, I noticed an unusually high number of birds sitting in trees above the water line. There were herons, egrets, ibis and anhinga's.

 As a came around the corner, where I could see a wider area, I saw the reason. A large alligator was right by the shore! 

I watched for about 15 minutes as it slowly floated along. The birds close to the water where not fooled by its imitation of a log and quickly moved to a safer location before it got too close! Another reason to be glad we are at the top of the food chain!

With the warmer temps comes safer roads so the stores are getting restocked. The only item I could not find was eggs! Several days ago I was able to find a gallon of whole milk to get me by. It was at a little market close to the Mexico border just a few miles west of here. It cost me $5 but you have got to feed the addiction! I need my bowl of evening cereal!

The effects of the cold weather are clearly seen all around. Trees that were green and full of food for the birds are mostly leafless and brown. The lakes and ponds in this area are very shallow so they were strongly affected by the cold. Large numbers of fish perished as they could not handle the temperature drop. They rescued about 5000 cold shocked sea turtles along South Padre Island shoreline. They turned the convention center into a sea turtle warming center in order to handled this unusually large amount. This was Texas's longest and coldest spell in about 30 years. I was lucky to be in an area that was not too badly affected. I will be making my final trip to the coast this weekend then come Wednesday I will hook up and start working my way back to Arizona. It will be bittersweet to leave.