Free Ferry Ride!

The woman who owns this Airbnb told me that if I took the ferry ride between Galveston and Bolivar Island more than once I was pretty much guaranteed to see a dolphin. I got lucky and saw one on my first trip this morning before 10 a.m.

On the way back I saw 3 boat tailed grackles hitching a ride on this tow truck. The young man driving the tow truck told me that he usually throws them a few snacks even though there are signs all around advising us not to feed the birds. I guess the grackles remember him or his truck. Today he was all out of snacks so they left after 15 minutes.

This was the morning ferry, not an auspicious name.

I think this is an adult, non-breeding laughing gull.

I had heard about an Audubon place called Smith Oaks bird sanctuary. This was about 18 miles from the ferry. This place is special because it and the whole city are 25 feet higher than the rest of the island. We're up on a salt dome. Warblers and other migrants fall to earth here after winging it over the Gulf of Mexico.

I think this is a snowy egret although the feet don't look yellow. I saw many snowy egrets flying by. I watched one in my binoculars relieve itself as it flew left. In the distance I saw a roseate spoonbill. I also saw great blue herons, vultures, neo tropic cormorants, a grebe, and others I couldn't identify.

Another snowy egret flew by when I went down off the tree top walkway. I was a little nervous about walking on the ground. 

See why I am nervous walking on the ground? This one was about 10 feet long!

Here I am nervously walking on the ground. I wished I had looked up what snakes to fear.

The only creature that bit me were 87 mosquitoes. I stopped at Target on my way home to buy more bug spray. I saw at least 30 gators and 50 turtles today.

Another gator pretending to be a bump on a log. I could even watch the turtles swimming under water looking for fish. I saw the egrets catching and swallowing fish too.

The circle of water indicates this heron just lunged after a fish. I need to take that free ferry ride again. I know there are 3 more Houston Audubon locations on this island. The ferry ride is about a 30 minute drive from here. Tomorrow, however, I will stick closer to  home. I also saw a white throated sparrow, some Eurasian Collared Doves, Blue jays, Pyrrhuloxia (like a Northern Cardinal), white pelicans, brown pelicans, Anhinga, Black Vultures, Bonaparte's Gull, a bunch of terns, Kill-deer, Double crested cormorants, Great Egrets, Great-Tailed Grackle, Osprey, Ring-billed gulls, Herring gulls, Sand Hill Crane, Summer Tanager (a first for me), and others I could not identify. I want to see a crested cara cara and a kite and a hummingbird and others but I can go out again tomorrow. For a while I felt bad that I didn't bring my hummingbird feeder along but then I realized that with all the feral cats it's probably for the best that I left it at home. This nature center is also the place where I got a phone call asking if I made a purchase on my debit card at 4:45 a.m. for $45 to buy a PC game. No, I do not make any purchases at 4:45 a.m. There goes my credit card. I can't get another one mailed to me and the nearest Wings branch is in Atlanta, Georgia. I can use the credit card and/or paper checks until I get back to Minnesota. I wish people were honest and law abiding.