Sunday was a classic rainy day on the refuge, just enough rain and coolness to make it a good day to stay inside. We did get in a short walk on the Rail Trail in the morning to see if any migrants had stopped in with the rain and northerly breeze. It was pretty quiet. I did see a Hooded Warbler, my first, and Ellen spotted a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and not much else, but it was a short walk.
I spent most of the rest of the day finishing up and filing tax returns. TurboTax and the Internet make it fairly straightforward but not particularly quick. Not a very exciting Sunday.
Today we went into Rockport with Speedy to get its shocks replaced. We had an 11am appointment and decided to go in a bit early and stop at Goose Island State Park, another birding spot. The environment was right for migrants and we heard some birds, but it was mostly Cardinals, Mockingbirds and Red-winged Blackbirds that we saw...and a lone Savannah Sparrow.
It was then off to Craig's Tire Service for a new set of shocks—but they weren't in. Someone had forgotten to order them. They said they would have them by 2:30pm, so, a bit disappointed, we left to do a little shopping and have lunch.
After picking up a few things at H-E-B, we stopped at Mac's Pit Barbecue & Catering (recommended by our maintenance staff, rated 3.9 by Google, 3.5 by Yelp, 3.5 by TripAdvisor, 4.5 by Facebook and 84% by Urbanspoon). We split a the Poor-boy luncheon special (a sub roll with pulled pork, sliced sausage and sliced brisket plus two sides). There was plenty for both of us, but I probably could have fit in a couple of ribs. I thought it pretty good, Ellen thought it just so-so. So far, the three places we've tried have bee unexceptional, but there is still Hatfield's (a Texas Monthly Top 50 selection) and Stevie Lew's still to come in Rockport...and we are going to San Antonio next weekend. Our reference great BBQ joints are still The Shed in Ocean Springs, MS and Champion Bar-B-Q Services of Ocala.
After lunch we still had plenty of time to kill so we went down to the harbor to have some coffee at Cafe Speedy. We have a kitchen, we have coffee and we have whatever view we want...this time Cafe Speedy had the bronze cranes of the Rockport Center for the Arts behind it and Aransas Bay in front of it. We didn't see many birds aside from Laughing Gulls, but there were a pair of Common Loons offshore.
After coffee, we decided to ride out to Key Allegro, an upscale-looking canal community off Little Bay. It is one of those built up developments where all the houses are on canals...with prices to match. We never made it there. As we were going down the road along Little bay we stopped to try to watch some herons, egrets and terns. The herons and egrets were carrying sticks to nests in a grove of trees just inland. The terns kept flying and fishing their way down the bay and we followed them to a turn-out by a pier.
They turned out to be Forster's Terns, but the pier was the real find. On the pier was a line of cormorants, both Double-crested and Neotropical. Ellen had been lusting for an opportunity to see a side-by-side comparison and here it was. They were also accompanied by the three local gulls, Laughing, Ring-billed and Herring (although the Herring Gull is our default gull on the South Shore, they aren't too common here.) Even bigger finds were on the water just off the pier, rafts of Redhead, Lesser Scaup and Blue-winged Teal were there, but the best was a group of about 75 American Avocets in full breeding plumage.
Then it started to really rain, a full-on thunderstorm. Surprisingly, the storm brought a flight of at least 25 Black Skimmers. The rain had stirred up something in the bay in front of us and the skimmers would make pass after pass directly in front of Speedy. They would come over the pier, then dipping and skimming up whatever was in the water just beyond it and circle out around the bay and do it again. We must have watched them do this for at least 10 minutes, until it was time to go back to Craig's.
Back we went, in the rain, to get the shocks and an oil change. It took them from about 2:30 to 5pm to put them in. The old ones were on a bit tightly. In fact, they had to grind off the nut on the front left one and knock out the bolt with a hammer and drift. This was the leaky one and it seems that the bolt got bent somewhere along the way...hmmm, wonder if the two problems were related?
Just before 5pm, we were off, on our way back to the refuge. We didn't get far, just to the first corner. It was still raining and now the windshield wipers were not working. It was a quick U-turn and back to Craig's. They were working when we pulled in at 2pm in the rain.
This seems to be a recurring Speedy joke. You fix one thing and another goes wrong when you leave the repair shop. The wiper failure didn't have anything to do with the shocks or oil change. I was hoping that maybe a wire got dislodged when they were under the hood, but no such luck. There was plenty of power to the wiper motor, but it wasn't moving, not even a hum. Needless to say, they didn't have a motor in stock and none were available at local parts shops. It will be back to Rockport in the morning as they are having one shipped from Houston overnight. Fortunately, the rain had stopped by the time we left and tomorrow is just supposed to be cloudy.
So much for today's tales of birds and Speedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment