South Padre Island, Texas

                                      Sunday 2/17/2013

                   We only stayed in Brownsville, TX for a week. While we were there we didn"t do much,          
                      but just hung out. There is a constant breeze and sometimes very strong wind in southeastern
                      Texas. One day our Nest reached a temperature of 90 degrees inside. ( We didn't have our    
                      air on ). We took our computers and sat out on our patio, under our awning and with the
                      Texas breeze it was delightful. I can't image being here in the summer without the wind. Thank
                       goodness for the constant breeze. Our temperatures averaged mid 70's to mid 80's while we
                      were there.

The only thing we really did while in Brownsville was to take a day to go to the island. We had been watching the forecast weather and decided to go on this particular day, because rain was forecast in the days to follow.  We drove through the congested city of Brownsville to the town of  Port Isabel. They had a health food store in that town that I would have liked to stop at, if it had not been Sunday and  was closed.

Lighthouse in Port Isabel just before we crossed the bridge to the island.

Padre Island was much more commercialized than we thought it would be.

South Padre Island, Texas

After stopping at the Visitor Center and driving around the town, we continued north on the main Hwy on the island and found a more unpopulated area.

The sand was drifting onto the highway from the strong Texas winds.

We brought Mallery with us, even  though I knew I probably would have to give her another bath. Things we do for our loyal dogie friends.

The day was cloudy with a strong Texas winds, so needed jackets, and were glad we  had long pants on that day. Mallery loves the cooler weather though

The beach had a line of high tide brown seaweed on it, like it had been in Port Aransas, when we were staying in Fulton, TX.

I think these are Ruddy Turnstones.

Female Ruddy Turnstone

I am practising my bird identifying skills on you all!

I think the top bird is a Sanderling.

On our beach walk we came to a shell crusted wood pole.

Thousands of sea creatures were attached to the pole.

The creatures were attached to the pole by a long black stem. The shells were alive, as they opened and closed.

 Not too many birds on the beach that day.

Black Tailed Gull

It found something to eat.

There were many small shells on the beach.

We walked north to the the next beach access.  

You could drive your car on the beach at this access for $5.00. I found out where all the birds were!

We headed back as Mallery enjoyed her freedom.

I had cut some of Mallery's long hair on the sides, a few days prior because it was starting to drag on the ground. I had not found time to do a full cut yet.

As we drove back to the town of South Padre, I took a couple of picture of some of the homes or condo's.

The next day was a beautiful sunny day, and we wished we had waited to go to the beach. We learned later that the forecast may say rain chances but it doesn't happen. We crossed the bridge back to the mainland.

Port Isabel on the other side of the bridge. Our drive back to the resort took about 35 mile.
We liked the resort we stayed at, but Brownsville was too big of a city for us at 178,430 population. There was too much traffic and the stores and parking lots were always full. The average high temperature for Brownsville is 70 to 93 degrees,with average lows at 55 to 76 degrees. Brownsville sits at the same latitude as North Miami. Beach. Hispanics and Latinos make up 93% of the population. The largest employer is the Brownsville Independent School District. The city is the first city in the USA to ban plastic shopping bags for a greener cleaner city. Brownsville's location at the intersection of different climate regimes (subtropical, Chihuahuan desert, Gulf Coast plain, and Great Plains) causes it to be a birding location. Its unique network of resacas (distributaries of the Rio Grande and oxbow lakes) provide habitat for nesting / breeding birds of various types - most notably during the Spring and Fall migrations.