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| Black-bellied Whistling Duck |
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| South Padre Island |
At the South end of Padre Island is the resort community of
South Padre Island. To get to South
Padre Island, we drove West, then South, and then East again, crossing over the
Laguna Madre at Port Isobel. Padre Island is no longer one intact island. In 1964, they dug a channel across the island
to allow ships to reach Port Mansfield.
The southern part of the bisected island is called South Padre
Island. The southernmost 5 miles of
South Padre Island has hotels, high rise apartment buildings, restaurants,
bars, crowded beaches and other resort paraphernalia. At the southernmost point are two
campgrounds. We stayed at the KOA and
pampered ourselves with a pool, fitness center, and on-site bar and restaurant
overlooking lovely Laguna Madre.
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| Laguna Madre with South Padre Island |
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| Cristo de los Pescadores |
We did manage several beach walks and swims for Tiki. On one walk we passed the Cristo de los
Pescadores Memorial for fishermen from the region who never returned home.
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| 1/2 of the largest outdoor sand sculpture in the US - in front of the Visitors Center |
We decided to take our bicycles out for a spin and explore
the island. We stopped at the Visitors
Center to get a map and discovered that they have a free shuttle bus that
drives up and down the island AND it has a bike rack on the front. So, we hopped aboard and took the bus to the
(almost) northernmost part of town, the location of the South Padre Island
Birding and Nature Center.
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| Coot | |
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| Common Gallinule |
The Birding Center has a series of boardwalks and
observation blinds that allow you to see many, many species of birds and
several alligators. We saw many birds
for the first time, like Coots, Common Gallinules, and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Most shocking to us was the
Reddish Egret. It has a grey body and a
reddish neck and a pink bill with a black tip.
We didn’t know that egrets came in any other color than white!
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| Reddish Egret - yes, they DO come in a color other than white! |
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| Black-necked Stilt |
After our tour, we loaded our bicycles back on the bus and were driven back to the campground. When we
returned to the KOA, we discovered that Russ’ bicycle had a flat
tire. So nice to not have to push an
injured bicycle through town. We had a
spare inner tube back at the campsite, so Russ was able to fix it upon our return.
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| Green Heron |
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| Great Blue Heron |
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| Tri-colored Heron (formerly known as Louisiana Heron) |
One evening, we once again encountered generous Texas hospitality. Compete strangers camping in the next campsite asked if we had eaten yet - they had fixed more food than they could eat. It was yummy. They live 30 minutes inland, and come to SPI every weekend.
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| Willet |
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| Yes, we take pictures of animals other than birds... |
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| More of those ducks |
We enjoyed our stay in South Padre Island. We were about 8 miles (as the crow flies)
from Mexico, but it would have taken many more miles to drive there. When we left and headed north again, we
passed quite a few Border Patrol vehicles parked along the highway. We even went through a permanent Border
Patrol checkpoint.
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| Later (Baby) Gater |
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| Sunset over Laguna Madre |
Nice summary! I used to go down twice a year to participate in sailboat races.
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