South Padre Island Animals (Part 2)

 These photos are all from January.

It was pretty cool most of January, but looking back on pictures,

I got a ton of animal pictures.

So many, that I'm going to have to break it down

into another post.

 We visited a Birding Center and a Sea Turtle Rescue Center

Those will go into another post.

 Feeding seagulls by the ocean is not like feeding ducks in Minnesota

 I just make sure the kids and their bread are far away from me!

 Some of the kids like to eat the bread along with the birds!

 We've seen several hurt birds.

I wonder if a fish or crab bit their feet off

or if they got caught in something somewhere.

Poor bird.

 This is a Common Gallinule

They hide in reeds.

We found him next to the pond by our condo.
Look how big his feet are!

 Starfish

 Dead starfish....so sad.

 This one is alive!  We threw him back in, not sure he made it or not.

This particular day in January we found several starfish.

The next day,

we found a ton of birds "fishing" 

 This time there were more than a few starfish washed up.

 There were piles and piles.

Kind of sad, but as fast as they came,

 they were washed away by the tide.

God provides for all.

This Sundial shell still has an inhabitant!

 Here's a (dead) little crab...

 There are always treasures to be found in the seaweed.

 Cuteness break

I told you it was pretty chilly in January.

We were glad we had our hats with us!

 No idea what this is, some kind of crab.

Reminded me more of some kind of octopus or something!

 Look at this cute little dead guy

 Poor thing.

Look at his beautiful shell.

We've found a few of these shells (without crabs in them)

This one lost half his limbs.

 This heron found his breakfast!

 This crab did not.

 This is Conrad.

He's from Canada.

He says "Eh?" after every sentence he says to you.

He's my favorite Canadian down here.

Even Canadians think Minnesota should be part of Canada,

 because it's colder than anywhere else.

 We thought this was a fish scale.

We find these all the time.

We recently found out it is some kind of crab shell.

It's about as big as my hand or maybe a little bigger.

 

 Washed up puffer fish.

 Another one.

 This fisherman is from Wisconsin.

He caught these Sheepheads off the Jetty.

He says they taste like walleye.

 The Sheepheads look like they have false teeth in.

 This is a Ghost shrimp.

"Ghost shrimp are appropriately named because they are totally transparent.

Despite their shrimp-like appearance,

they are actually more closely related to crabs."

 

 

 This is Dave.

He's from Michigan

He reminded me of my grandpa.

He's short and loved the kids.

He showed the kids how to find the Ghost shrimp.

 

 When the water comes up to shore, as it goes back,

there are holes everywhere

that is where the shrimp are...this tube suctions them up.

The Ghost shrimp are used for bait.

A person needs a fishing license just to use this.

 

I thought this guy was so cute sitting there with all his bird friends

waiting to see what he catches!

I know that there are opossums in Minnesota,

but it was still fun to see this guy next to the pond by our condo!

 

 Onto the sand dunes.

There are horses there,

if you park by the horseback riding place!

We never did go because, um, we have 6 kids, and that would 

cost us a small fortune. 

 

 

 There are a ton of these hills. ( the dunes)

The sand is the softest sand ever!! 

I dare you to go there and not take off your shoes!

 I let the kiddos run all over the hills

up and down all over the place.

(I'll have to do a separate post just on the dunes, it's so fun!)

The day after we went to the dunes,

I was thanking God it was not sunny when we were there.

Because,

someone told me that RATTLESNAKES

live in the dunes and come out on sunny days!

We did NOT see a rattlesnake nor do we plan to.

Well, that's it for now.

I hope you enjoyed some of the animals we've seen.

(We'll be leaving for home in 10 days)