Spoonbills and Sociability

Earlier I said I was on the hunt for my favorite large, impressive, unmistakable bird: the roseate spoonbill. Like a flamingo, but with this big, spatulate schnozz. Finally I came upon some, exactly where they were two years ago. They, unlike me, are very social, so there was quite a cluster of them.

 

 

 

My brother Alan was the photographer this time, and he’s very good at it. He and Patti were here for a wonderful few days’ visit. We did lots of beach walking, touring, and talking.

One of our junkets was to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, where Beth and Steve and I had been the week before. Not many birds, really, though Alan got a wonderful shot of a great egret in flight.
 

Now, about that sociability. All of these wise visitors pointed out to me that Rule #7 for the single traveler, or any traveler, really, is “Ask questions.” And the corollary, “Be open to chatting with strangers.” If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have known that there were alligator babies hidden in plain sight at the very first stop in the refuge.

 

At one point, Mama Alli decided to break her motionless nap by checking us out pretty closely.

 

 

Another encounter with a stranger pointed us toward something we never expected: a couple of dozen wild pigs. We didn’t get a very good look, but were pretty impressed with what we did see.

 

The man also solved the mystery of all the big chunks of dug-up dirt we’d seen by the side of the road: the pigs again. We think they were probably digging for truffles.