Landscapes from the Weekend

This is what a week of rain can do for a golf course ... green and lush!



Mother Nature's fireworks



Beautiful, low hanging thunderheads



The clouds opened up and it really came down. You can see how close the tides are to the top of the bulkhead. They've receded from the storm but remain several feet higher than normal.



Raining, raining , raining ...



And then a rainbow!

Big Birds of Galveston

Sunday afternoon - in the scorching heat - Jerry played 9 holes of golf and I rode with him. We came across this beautiful spoonbill with deep, hot pink feathers.



Even his legs are hot pink!



Oops, scared him away. Check out those feathers!



I need some help identifying this next bird. He/she appeared on Sunday and has been camped out on the mast of a sailboat in the marina. Very large ...



This close up was shot at 24x and isn't clear, but you can see the huge talons gripping the top of the mast ... this isn't a "water bird" ... I think they've all got webbed feet. It seemed too large for a hawk, but maybe ... ???



This morning, we had a nice group of pelicans hanging out on the pilings of the marina and this guy was sharing space with a seagull. They were working on their feathers and drying out in the sun.



Check out that pelican's pouch!



Lots of work here ...



Grooming in unison ...

The 4th of July!

Saturday night, the West End Property Owners put on a great fireworks display and since they shot them from the old Stuart Mansion lawn, we had a front row seat on our balcony. NONE of our cats enjoyed the show and were paranoid about going back on the balcony the rest of the weekend. Guess it was too close for comfort!



After playing with the settings on my camera, I finally captured a few good shots.



This is a strange looking thing ...



Bright green!



A Pirates Cove tradition is the July 4th parade, where everyone decorates their golf carts and bikes and cruises through Pirates Cove and down Stuart Road. Lots of patriotic carts.



And then a few creative ideas ... this is my favorite ... Cloud Nine.



Very colorful and beach themed.



Gotta love this! Their name is "Goody 2 Shoes" and it's hard to see but they've got shoes hanging all around their cart.



Toy Story ...



Yes, you're seeing flamingos painted burnt orange and white and strapped to their UT themed cart. Only in Galveston ...

Hurricane Alex

As Hurricane Alex came ashore in Northern Mexico, Galveston had high tides and lots of rain. You can see in this web cam image that the rain is coming down and both the boat docks and the new, higher marina docks are well under water.



The highest tide was well over the bulkhead and about 2 feet back on the grass. Lots of high water, but we were DRY!



Here's a photo from the beach side and you can see the terrible erosion of their man-made "dune". After Hurricane Ike, they filled sand bags, covered them with dirt and planted grass that sloped down to the beach. You can see that the large sand bags are completely exposed ... as is the plumbing for their sprinkler system. Hope they have time to rebuild their protection system before the next event.



Here's a photo with the "debris line" crossing this driveway and marking the high tide. Lots of water for a storm hundreds of miles away!

Angels & Twisters

Last weekend, while walking on the beach, Jerry and I looked up and saw this interesting cloud formation with a wispy angel rising out of the building thunderheads. Of course, it looked better in person, but you can see her wings in the back and her hands folded in prayer in front.

I took it as a sign that Hurricane Alex would leave us alone!



On the return trip, way off over the water, we saw this twister - or water spout. I was sorry I couldn't get the camera on and pointed in the right direction when it was extended down farther toward the water. It's just a little pointed finger from this far away.



It stayed put for quite a while, but as we got closer, it was shrinking back into the clouds. You can still see the tail in this shot.

Denny's Bath

Week before last, my sweet Elvis decided that Denny needed a bath and there was no stopping him!



Head, neck, back ...



Poor Denny didn't know what to do ... Elvis was on a mission!



A few quick laps to the head and he's done.

Pelican Squadrons & Stingray City

As we were walking along the beach this morning, we saw squadron after squadron of pelicans flying low along the water. There were a lot of them and Jerry and I began to wonder if some of the Louisiana pelicans have moved to Texas to enjoy the clean water and good fishing!



These aren't great photos, but you can see them skimming the water and looking for fish.



Long lines of them - with maybe 10 or 12 pelicans each.



As we started to walk back to the car, we saw an area of chopped up water and lots of fins. As we approached, this is what we saw ...



A large group of stingrays was migrating west along the water's edge.



We've seen them before, but these looked to be a different type of stingray. They were gray with dark tips on their "wings" and were quite large ... more like the ones we saw in Grand Cayman than the small, brown ones that moved by Galveston several years ago.



You can see all the small fins breaking the water in this wide shot. There were at least 50 of them and they were sort of swarming around as they moved down the beach.



You really never know what you're going to see ~ I was happy I had taken my camera!

The Beach

Some interesting changes took place at the beach between Memorial Day and and this weekend. It appears that the GLO took the hurricane damaged house, as it is gone and the tell-tale picket fence - usually indicating the dune line - has been placed back against the "second row" home. It's strange to see the empty space & will be interesting to learn if the owners lost their land or if they'll be able to rebuild.



It's an old wives tale that Mother Nature sends the seaweed to protect the coast, just before she sends the storm. If this is true, we're in for it this hurricane season!

Seaweed was thick and plentiful all along the beach. In most cases, the beaches had been "groomed" with mounds and mounds (6 - 9 feet high) of seaweed pushed back towards the dune line to trap blowing sand and replenish the natural dunes.

You'll see in this photo, as we walked west from Pirates Beach, the "a la natural" section of beach was completely covered.



Here's a lovely shot of some seaweed sporting a huge "tar ball" about as big as a plate. We didn't see any other evidence of "tanker tar".



Here's a close up ... it had a variety of shells - and sand - stuck all over it.