Road Trip Texas - South Padre Island Day 6/7

Heading to South Padre Island
Our adventure continues with another before daylight wakeup call, and on the road by 7.  I don't grumble and winge so much anymore when the alarm goes off.  There is usually good sights to be seen along in our day.

This day was no exception.  We headed first to Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge about 30 minutes from South Padre Island.  Expecting to catch the 8:30 birding bus, we were a bit disappointed to learn that the morning's tour would not be about birds, and it was a 25 minute drive to and from the refuge area.  This was quite a bit different from all of the other refuges we've been to. Most you are usually given a map and sent off to walk the trails and paths. Going with the flow, we boarded the bus with 3 others and set off.

One more to add to the years 'sign' list!

The two volunteer guides were very good, energetic and knowledgeable about the area - we always keep in mind that these 'volunteers' might be us some day soon!   The area we drove on, were exactly the type of roads that Tom and I like to explore - but in this case, closed to the public.  At some point soon, they hope to have it open to the public for hiking and possibly kayaking. Anyway, the drive was good, although I didn't take a single image! I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.

We finished the trip, said our goodbyes and headed off to South Padre Island - a skinny, peninsula with a bit of town down the middle.

This town looks like it might be a lot of fun if you were vacationing here in the 'season' - rental jeeps and scooters, tacky tourist shops advertising nothing over $6.99 - except for the $9.99 bathing suits, and tons of restaurants, pubs and cool looking hangouts.  This time of year, it was pretty quiet.

South Padre Island Birding Center Building and Observation tower

We spent most of our time here walking the two boardwalks through the mangroves and shoreline of the South Padre Island Convention Center and the Birding Center.

The pink bird is a Roseatte Spoonbill.  The white ones are white Ibis.

 They have almost paralleling boardwalks.  One is free the other charges a small fee.  We think they pay the birds to go to the fee side as there were many more at the birding center!

A 'fishing' reddish egret.

We enjoyed the afternoon light on the birds and have many photos of posing and posturing.

Before leaving we made one last stop at the Gulf of Mexico side of the peninsula so Lefty and I could get our feet wet!

It just so happened that our drive back across the bridge to the mainland was just at sunset.  There were some great colors and wonderful silhouettes along the way.

While this was just a day trip, we've spent every day here touring the local areas state parks, wildlife refuges, audobon stations and other hot spots and known birding areas.  We've walked a lot every day, 4-8 miles, so this day of driving was a nice break from the hikes.  My feet appreciated it.
 Just as we were leaving the island I spotted this sigh. I made sure that Tom turned around to get this signboard - sort of sums up his year!

We have one more day to wrap up the birding list.  It's going good, from what I'm hearing from the other end of the room!  We've got at least two days of driving and several planned stops along the way.  I'll post when I get to a wi-fi spot.  Stay tuned.