Mustang Island - The birds on the beach AND the boats in the sea. 

                                         willet

                                                                           sea gulls

                         lots of people fishing this day

                                                                           curlew

                                                                       snowy egret

                                                                     reddish egret

                                                                  white tailed hawks

                                                                 sandhill cranes

                                 immature peregrine falcon

 banded immature brown pelican  - luckily it was only 2-3 feet away so I got good shots of the bands and was able to report it .  I got an email back thanking me and hopefully I will get more information once they check the bands.

                     this is a tri-color heron,  a lot smaller than a great blue

                                                     so much fun to watch these guys fish

 I have never been so close to herons and egrets before.  They get pretty brave when fishermen are around and they think them might get a free meal.

There are a lot of white pelicans here as well as the brown.  They are not usually together but we did see them both fighting over scraps from the fishermen one day.  The white are quite a bit bigger than the brown and they both have very different fishing styles. It has been very entertaining for me watching and taking photos of all the  birds while Don watches the boats.  We can see the boats coming in from our window in the RV  We go down to the breakwater where the boats come in and out of Corpus Christi as well as the nice park where the ferry is.  Its a place we go nearly every day as well as the beach.  We have spent countless hours lolligagging on the beach, watching boats, dolpins, sea turtles, birds and  fishermen.

 these huge blocks of rocks are all along the ocean edge, some areas have walkways as well but most are topsy turvy due to the hurricane

 The harbor pilots get on and off the boats by traveling on a pilot boat to the tanker or barge.  Looks like a dangerous occupations dangling from those ladders.  I was surprised how many oil and gas tankers travel through every day.

                           this one is a fishing boat - shrimp we think

 This one was absolutely huge.  It is called an offshore jacket.  It was built near Corpus Christi to be shipped to Israel.  It will take 50 days to get there by sea.  They are working on the top part that will be ready to ship this summer   The company will supply gas to Israel once it is all assembled..  We saw a  group of men taking pictures and watching the huge load.  So we asked them what it was all about and they were super great - one of the engineers we talked to was actually from Israel. They even had drones out recording the procedure.    I knew he wasn't from Texas straight off.  Also very much enjoying the Texas accents.  They wanted a picture of all of them in front of the boat so asked me to take some shots for them.

 This was one we saw the next day   these are jack up drilling rigs.

 The beach - and fun stuff on it!

 I think that is a picture of me collecting shells on St Joes island

A

 can you see that heron keeping an eye on the lady fishing?  they were fun people from Colorado that we met on the beach.

 lots of people park their rv or tent right on the beach and hang out a few days  I would really like to try that

 these are huge jelly fish - its interesting to see what washes up every day.  Seems like its different all the time.  I think I even saw a puffer fish one day but of course did not have my camera.  I have seen all kinds of sea creatures in the sand.  Even a stingray one day.

 the beach is miles and miles long - this spot has a bit of a fence that separates the beach from the road but mostly its wide open.

This is the beach that runs all along the gulf of Mexico .  It is miles long and you can drive your car and just park along the shore line. There are people there fishing and collecting shells all day long.  We go here every day to walk, wade in the water, look at shells and sometimes just sit in a chair and watch the waves.

 If you watch in front of the big ships the dolphins are having a great time jumping in the waves.

 These next pictures are from St Joe's island   You have to hire a jetty boat to take you there.  They go back and forth a few times a day on a schedule.  There is nothing on the island, no roads, no washrooms nothing.  Except a lovely beach and tons of sea shells.  We had decided to stay 2 hours and it flew by.  We met  some couples that were fishing (and Canadian) and watched them fish and chatted with them.

 On the top left of this picture are some sea beans   - basically they are nuts that have floated in the ocean from other countries.  I can tell one of them is a walnut but unsure of the other two.  They polish them up and make jewellery out of them.

                                                       close up of the sea beans

                                               a crabby little guy lives there

                                               so many shells - so little time

I don't know what these are but I call them  necklaces.   The small shells are all clustered in a string  These next 2 pictures are from the Padre Island National Seashore.  We went there twice and enjoyed the beach and the education about the area.  Once we also went for a guided bird walk.  We were the only two there so it was great to have the guides all to ourselves.  Their names were Karen and Tom which is the same as my sister and her husband so  that is why I can remember them.  They were the nicest people and also gave us a tip to try out the German restaurant on North Padre Island on our way home.  Oh man, that was the most amazing bakery/restaurant.

 The man that makes these things almost every day gave me some tips to try and make sandcastles. I tried to make a sandcastle but was unsuccessful  the sand compacts so much when its wet and it would not come out of my pail.    It sticks in our runner treads and comes out in a chunk.  It is soft and nice to walk in .  
Below is a picture of us that is by the pier and park where you can catch the ferry.  It was a chilly day.