These laughing gulls were at the Texas City Dike and they were all happy as they could be perched on concrete or rock.
They do not seem to be scared at all but they do seem to be watching you all the time.
Birds
Reddish Egret
This reddish egret was posing for my camera in Galveston.
Most of the time the shorebirds quite use to people being around on the beaches. If you make a sudden movement they will leave and then come back again.
Shrimp boats
Sometimes when we go to Galveston we take a ferry ride and you always see some neat things along the way.
Bolivar is the opposite of Galveston there is hardly any traffic and no shopping there except a little store here and there. Life seems to move at a much slower pace.
On this ferry ride, we saw a few shrimp boats and a few birds catching a free ride. You know those shrimpers have to get annoyed with the birds swarming the boat all the time.
The Gulf of Mexico was quite busy this last weekend.
Tiny shorebirds
I really love going to the beach and getting to take pictures of the shorebirds.
These tiny sandpipers are always in a large group close to the waters edge it’s pretty easy to get their pictures with their reflections.
We spent yesterday at the beach because that was what I wanted to do for my birthday which so happens to be today.
Normally my birthdays are always spent doing something that involves taking pictures because that is what I love to do.
I will be sharing more pictures of the beach trip this week.
Ducks, ducks, and more ducks
If you remember there were two black bellied whistling ducks that frequented our bird feeders they were coming every day a few times a day for the last few months.
We decided to build them a nesting box. Their boxes have to be pretty big because they are bigger than the average bird.
I guess they told all their friends where there was a free meal because we have had as many as eleven ducks at a time. They show up around 7 – 7:30 a.m. stay about 1 1/2 hours then they leave.
In the evening, they come back again mainly to rest in the shade but they do some eating too.
I had to grab a picture of them on the arbor above the walk through. As you can see one is in the feeder eating. Most of the time there will be two in each feeder and they take turns with the ones who are waiting.
At this point, we are looking at adding more feeders because when they are eating the little birds do not get to eat.
The juvenile cardinals
We have always had cardinals in our yard but this year we have a lot.
There are so many juveniles going through so many different stages you have to laugh about it.
The males especially seem to get the worst of it and tend to look so awkward during this stage.
In the pictures, below the males are in the first two pics you can tell their feathers are changing colors so they have two colors of feathers right now.
The females are the last two pictures but all these birds are juveniles.
Taking aim
I saw this little green hummingbird aiming for the flower and I was able to get 3 shots in a row of his action.
It is like Ready, Aim, Fire.
