Hillary Goes A-Birding...One LONG Day

After I got off work yesterday I took Hillary on her first birding trip, a short outing to High Island. She didn't have binoculars, but I was carrying my scope, so she got to see the nesting Roseate Spoonbills, egrets, and cormorants at Smith Woods. Not only did she get to see the baby birds up close, but also some nice migrants, like Spotted Sandpiper, Eastern Kingbird, Swainson's Thrush, a bright male Scarlet Tanager, Blue Grosbeak, Orchard Oriole, Philadelphia Vireo, etc. Little flitty warblers and a male Indigo Bunting were more elusive. Still, it was nice to have so many birds perch close in front of us so she could see them well. Since she's not bird crazy we also stopped to look at alligators and turtles and make friends with a Swamp Rabbit that crossed our path.

After that we had dinner in Winnie at Al-T's Cajun Restaurant, which doubles as a museum of taxidermy...the walls were thick with dead critters. I should have done a head count on all the trophy bucks. A very large alligator was afixed to the wall near our table. Reminded me of Dudley Moore looking at the trophy on the wall in the movie Arthur..."you must have really hated that moose"... Oh well, by the time we left we were both stuffed too. I had the crawfish platter, yum. It was late in the evening when I finally got her back to Port Neches, and since I was coming off a graveyard shift from the night before I was more or less zombified by the time I got home...