After a Day's Repite, the Rain and Fog Returns

Yesterday started out cloudy but dry and relatively warm (50°), so off we went on our morning exercises, Ellen on a walk, Steve on a bicycle ride. Ellen did a 4+ mile walk up and back along the coastal part of the auto tour road and I rode a bit farther. I'd intended to ride out to the observation tower and back, a bit under 10 miles, but when I got out to the tower and saw it still fogged in, I decided to continue along the one-way section of the loop road. It goes inland through the refuge. This was my first time on it.

It winds through open fields, many of which are covered in shrubby live oak. This is an impenetrable thicket, at least to humans, the feral hogs seem to have no problems with it. I have read that it is the result of grazing. The uplands of the Blackjack Peninsula were originally savannah in the low areas, with live oak forest clumps, called mottes in the higher locations. This was disturbed and turned into grazing land. The over-grazing decimated to savannah and allowed the oaks to spread by their roots, resulting in widespread thickets of shrubby "running" live oak.

There certainly seems to be a large population of feral pigs out there. While I didn't see any along that portion of the ride, the roadside shoulders have been severely rooted out by the hogs. A plow couldn't have done a more complete job of turning over the soil.

About midway through the inland part of the loop ride, I passed a lake or pond. As I went by, a large flock of white birds took off in the fields next to it. At first I thought they were Snow Geese, but after getting out my binoculars, they turned out to be hundreds of White Ibis. Many of them came to alight in nearby trees.

It was almost the highlight of the ride. After coming out of the one-way loop road onto the main road, I stopped at the fishing pier to see it the Long-billed Curlew was still there. It was, but a Reddish Egret was also there, right in close to the beach. Unfortunately, it chose to take off before I could get the camera out of my handlebar bag.

It turned out to be a nearly 20 mile ride instead of a 10 mile ride.

But that wasn't all of it. After lunch, the weather continued to improve, so Ellen and I took the bicycles out again, with binoculars, camera and the new small spotting scope. We first stopped at Heron Flats, where the Sora was still in residence and the pair of Whooping Cranes were still out in the marsh along with all the usual herons, egrets and spoonbills. At the fishing pier were various ducks, pelicans, gulls and unidentifiable (to me) sandpipers. We went as far as the observation tower, but only went out on a lower platform to see more shorebirds and herons, and an American Kestrel on a post along the closed boardwalk.

We made one more stop at the fishing pier on the way back. It seems to be the only place we've found in the refuge where we have a strong cellular signal. A couple of calls and a few more duck sightings later, we were on our way back to Speedy. Another 10 miles of Sunday cycling.

By sunset, the fog had crawled back in and although it was warm all night, it was quite damp. It has turned into a rainy monday. It is one of our days off, but we chose to go in to the office this morning to do a little more cataloging of papers. By lunchtime, we finished the shelf of theses and dissertations we'd been working on and decided to call it a day.

So—we are just spending another rainy day in Speedy, reading and updating Speedy's journal.