Shorebirds on Galveston Island

Hello! Today was a beautiful day. It was sunny, cool, and breezy so Tink and I decided to do a little bird watching on Galveston Island at the Apffle Park Beach. There was an abundance of birds today, especially Ring-billed and Laughing Gulls, and a wide variety too. The main reason I wanted to go to Galveston Island was to look for my favorite bird, the Red-breasted Merganser (which we saw), and also see what kind of shorebirds can be found here in winter. So this is what we saw:

Black-bellied Plover - Pluvialis squatarola , this was the only one I saw today.

Piping Plover - Charadrius melodus , there was unexpectedly a few of these! We counted 24 of this endangered specie. Interestingly two of them were banded with different bands as seen below.

This one has a blue band, which I didn't notice until I was zooming in to look at the picture on my camera.

Here is the second one with one orange and one red band on the lower leg and a green clip band on the upper part of the same leg ( the green leg is barely visible). I wonder where these two were banded?

Here are some more of the Piping Plovers with two Dunlins. A lot of the shorebirds were hiding behind debris today because of the strong cold winds; the sun was very warm otherwise. I hope they were comfortable.

Snowy Plover - Charadrius alexandrinus , we saw 14 of these today. This was the first time I have seen a Snowy Plover, and now I have seen all four of the small North American plover species.

Black-necked Stilt - Himantopus mexicanus & Greater Yellowlegs - Tringa melanoleuca

This was the only Black-necked Stilt we saw today which was with three Greater Yellowlegs. They seemed to be finding lots of goodies to eat in the tide pools.

Long-billed Curlew - Numenius americanus , there were two of these sleeping in a shallow area. Luckily a Laughing Gull flying by called and woke this one up for proper view and a picture.

Marbled Godwit - Limosa fedoa , there were four of these in the same estuary as the Stilt and Yellowlegs but these seemed to prefer the deeper spots.

Ruddy Turnstone - Arenaria interpres , blending in very well with the exposed oyster bed.

Sanderling - Calidris alba , taking an afternoon nap.

Dunlin - Calidris alpina , we saw about 21 of these. Unlike the other small shorebirds these were all very active in feeding; constantly moving and plunging their beaks deep into the sand.

Least Sandpiper - Calidris minutilla , this was the most common shorebird we saw today. We counted 63 of them. A lot of them were hidden among the exposed oyster beds. They were extremely hard to see, practically invisible, until you got close and they would scurry a little and then blend right back into the surrounding. It was amazing.

This is what I mean about being extremely hard to see! How many can you find?

There was also a few Willet - Catoptrophorus semipalmatus, but for some strange reason I didn't photograph any of them! They are common throughout the year on Galveston Island.

... and to end this post here is a Roseate Spoonbill - Ajaia ajaja , it was just a few feet from the road in the salt marsh.

Thanks for reading! :)

Sleeplessness

Hi! I cannot sleep now. Its supposed to snow tonight (the first time this winter season) and I really hope it does! I have not seen a single flurry this winter and if it doesn't snow it will be the first winter in my life that there has not been snow. Sigh... There is something about the snow that makes me want to go out and explore.

Anyway, I think that its just a lot of anxiety that is keeping me up... the new year, the weather, changes, traveling, weddings, money, taxes, delays, work... but I am trying to be positive about the things to come.

I think I feel more calm after writing this post.

Current weather conditions: No snow yet, but freezing rain - which is covering tree branches.

Chinese New Year 2011

Happy Chinese New Year!

It is the year of the Rabbit and I hope you have a kind and gentle year. ;)

Paperwhites - Narcissus papyraceus ,the only flower blooming in my garden at the moment.

Looking for Red-cockaded Woodpeckers

Hello! Today was a beautiful winter day! It was sunny and around 60*F with a cool breeze.

Today, Tink and I drove up to Sam Houston National Forest to hike and bird watch. We stopped by the Red-cockaded Woodpecker Interpretive Site. It was really neat! The site provides and educational opportunity to observe the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Picoides borealis. There was lot of the characteristic nest of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) all over the site. When we got there we heard one but couldn't see it. The pines are very tall there, some of the tallest I have seen, with very thick trunks. Many of them were swaying back and forth in the breeze. Im sure they provide the RCWs with lots of good hiding and feeding spots. We stayed for about a half hour and I took pictures of the nest holes. We will definitely come back in the spring when they are supposedly most active.

The trees with the nest holes have a lot of resin coating many feet above and below the nest hole itself. This makes it easy to find the nest, even though most trees with nest are marked by humans with paint near the base of the trunk.

Its a pretty attractive nest. I can see why many other species of bird and other animals like to take over the RCW nest holes.

The nest holes with the metal guard are kinda neat. I wonder what the RCWs think of them?

Versace F/W '10 Runway

The season is almost at an end but before it does I wanted to share with you a few pieces from the mens Versace fall/winter 2010 collection that I like.

Here is the first piece. Its very bright, which is kind of nice for dark cold winter days. This piece was used in the fall/winter 2010 ad campaign.

The back has this pattern in the center.

And another nice detail is this medusa near the back collar. Which the next piece has too...

I was hoping to get this piece exactly how it is shown here on the runway, but it was made into a long sleeve shirt like the one above. It would have been wearable as the fall/winter is still warm enough here in Houston to wear a sleeveless shirt, but the long sleeve version is more appropriate for most of North America.

The pattern goes over the shoulder to the back and mirrors the front.

The last piece I wanted to share with you is this sweater. I love this sweater. It has tons of detail and a great silver sheen to the yarn. This piece was also used in the fall/winter 2010 ad campaign as well.

As you can see, the three bans that protrude a little are actually stings of yarn going across each section. If you wear the sweater without an undershirt you can see skin in those sections.

Here is more detail of the collar and shoulder. Isn't the material great!? It remind me a little of metal armor.

Phalenopsis spikes

Hello! I hope you are nice and warm on this very cold winter day! Half of the country is covered in snow and even here in Houston, TX we had below freezing temperatures!

So Im sure everyone has there orchids in nice comfortable spots for the winter. I brought my all my orchids inside and spaced them all around the house. I have 3 different Phalenopsis on my office window and all 3 of them have flower spikes! The mini-Phal (which I dont think is actually in the Phalenopsis genus) is the farthest along. Hopefully there will be some nice blooms by Valentines Day! :D

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! Im so excited its 2011!

I hope you have a wonderful year with much luck, good health, and lots of happiness!

Here's a picture of a female Summer Tanager - Piranga rubra in Florida, for a bright start to the new year!